Marvel Studios has officially responded to the Avengers: Doomsday leaks that have made their way around the internet in recent weeks. While leaks are nothing new for Avengers-sized Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, they are often easy to sidestep or ignore because rumors make the entertainment industry go around - that doesn't make them real. This time, however, the leaks were verging into massive spoiler territory, which seemingly forced the studio to step in.
The newer leaks, which feature high quality images of Chris Evans' return as Steve Rogers, leading the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four in battle against Doctor Doom and the Sentinels first surfaced via pixelated footage two weeks ago. It was so pixelated that fans thought it might be AI fakery. And when Marvel didn't have the footage pulled from the internet, that seemingly confirmed those suspicions. That is, until the high-quality versions surfaced, which Marvel did seemingly respond to rapidly.
Marvel Studios' rapid response to newly 'leaked' Avengers: Doomsday footage confirms it was real
With DMCA Takedowns flooding the internet, scrubbing the footage from platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit, this has seemingly confirmed fans' worst fears: The leaked Avengers: Doomsday footage is seemingly real.
See, this didn't all start with Avengers: Doomsday; no, the leaking began with a different Marvel movie: Spider-Man: Brand New Day. As Marvel has a deal with Sony Pictures that allows the two to collaborate on Spider-Man movies (Sony currently own the movie rights to the character), both films take place in the MCU. However, when Sony was hampered with leaks from the upcoming Spidey movie, including promo art and two whole variations of the same trailer - which, to their credit, they had removed very swiftly - we didn't expect Avengers: Doomsday to suffer a similar fate. After all, Marvel Studios oversee that one alone; if Spidey's leaks were the result of a leak at Sony, it shouldn't have impacted Doomsday, right? Wrong, apparently.
Before going any further, let's look at a timeline of these apparent leaks, including major developments in both the Avengers and Spider-Man camps:
- Monday, June 8: Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer leaks a week early
- Tuesday, June 9: Sony issues DMCA takedowns to have trailer pulled
- Wednesday, June 10: Rumors of imminent Avengers: Doomsday leaks surface
- Saturday, June 13: Avengers: Doomsday pixelated footage leaks online
- Monday, June 15: Previous "fake" Avengers leaks re-evaluated as real
- Wednesday, June 17: Official Spider-Man 4 trailer confirms leaks were real
- Thursday, June 18: High-quality stills from original Avengers leak surface
- Friday, June 19: Apparent stills of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom leak
- Friday, June 19: Disney / Marvel issues DMCA takedowns to have leaks pulled
Yeah, it's been quite the month for all things Marvel. And there is quite a lot that we can take away from it. For starters, Sony acted quickly and had the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailers pulled from social media within 24 hours, which seemingly confirmed that it was real. When the trailer was officially released online the next week - to go along with the official tickets release - it confirmed those suspicions that Spider-Man fans had. Yes, it was identical to the leaked one.
Therefore, those same fans were holding out hope that the "leaked Avengers: Doomsday footage" was actually just AI as Marvel had not responded to it. Yes, the footage could have featured the likes of Yelena Belova, Thor, the X-Men, Shang-Chi, both Captain Americas, and the Fantastic Four - while also confirming Sentinels - but without actually being able to see these characters' faces, there was no evidence that outright confirmed it was real. So Marvel's silence - which contrasted with Sony's swiftness - was a source of relief for audiences. And then the high-quality photos surfaced.
Those stills, seemingly from the same scene, are incredibly convincing. Chris Evans' returning Steve Rogers, leading the likes of Thor, Yelena, Shang-Chi, and the rest of the heroes? It all looked very convincing - and it forced fans to re-analyze some of those previously "leaked" photos from months ago featuring Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, with the consensus potentially shifting from "fake" to "maybe real". Something else that didn't help were the subsequent leaks of Robert Downey Jr.'s first look as Doctor Doom. And then Marvel had the HQ stills pulled rather promptly.
As we reported earlier this week, the leaked photos are no longer available to see on social media platforms like Twitter / X or Reddit. Those images have been replaced by words, which read: "This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner". And as Marvel is the only one who could claim copyright over Avengers: Doomsday footage, they essentially outed the footage as being legitimate - something that fans have very quickly caught onto.
Now, in Marvel's defense, the Avengers: Doomsday leaks continued to come, so they had to step in to put a stop to them. And they acted swiftly but also only when they had to. Their earlier attempt to keep the mystery alive by not pulling the bad quality videos was a unique step to ensure that we didn't know whether the footage was real or not, but the upgraded quality stills - complete with unfinished CGI and special effects - forced them to step in. And hey, with reshoots underway, there's a very real chance that the final version of that battle could look very different by the time that it reaches the silver screen.
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in movie theaters on December 18, 2026.
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