The Russo brothers, directors of Avengers: Endgame and the upcoming Avengers: Judgment Day, posted a fresh teaser on Instagram that Marvel fans are now trying to decipher.
The image, posted on Instagram this morning, shows a blurry black and white object that fans say is shaped like a V. That's all we really need, which isn't much, and yet fans have quickly formed a long list of theories about what the V could mean.
Of course, in Judgment Day, Robert Downey Jr. plays Doctor Doom, whose full name begins with Victor Von. Could this V be just a hint of that? It seems simple. What about V as the Roman numeral for the number five? Well, Judgment Day will be the fifth Avengers movie. But again, there's nothing here that we don't already know.
But what if V is a countdown? WITH reports that Avengers: Judgment Day will get its first trailer attached to the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ashthere are rumors circulating about when this trailer will be released online. (As a reminder, the new Avatar movie hits theaters this Friday, December 19th.)
Is “V” the number 5 in Roman numerals? There are five days left until the release of Fire and Ash – and presumably the Doomsday trailer that goes with it – isn't it? Maybe it's a mysterious countdown,” Marvel fan luthestreewhisperer suggested on his channel. Reddit.
As noted over the weekend, Judgment Day will reportedly get not one, but four Fire and Ash trailers over the course of four weeks to keep the hype going (and Avatar tickets are selling for repeat viewings).
If a movie features at least four big superhero teams, could each trailer focus on one of them in turn? Doomsday's lineup will be joined by members of the classic Avengers (including Thor and Loki), the New Avengers (also known as the Thunderbolts), the Fantastic Four, and the classic X-Men.
Of course, this isn't the first time the Russo brothers have released a cryptic teaser on Instagram. Previously a couple published an image showing the outline of the letters “AVX”.which many fans perceived as “Avengers vs. X-Men”, a hint at the expected opening of the film before everyone realizes that Doctor Doom is the bad guy they need to work together to defeat.
Avengers: Judgment Day will open in theaters almost exactly one year from now: December 18, 2026.
Tom Phillips is news editor at IGN. You can contact Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky. @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
