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Excitement for Marvel Studios’ upcoming Avengers: Doomsday has certainly been building, especially after the latest publicity stunt unveiling the main actors starring in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe installment. The surprise announcement, which was live-streamed across social media channels and YouTube, also confirmed that production for the film – which releases May 1, 2026 – is now underway.
Kicking off with the simple caption, “take a seat”, the mysterious live stream on the Marvel Studios’ X account opened with a fold-out chair with “Chris Hemsworth” written across it being placed into focus. 15 minutes later, the camera slowly panned right to reveal an identical chair – but with the name “Vanessa Kirby”.
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More than 10 million people tuned in on X to see which actors would be officially revealed for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday.
While the drip-feed approach began as a source of frustration, cynicism, and amusement for many fans, with the camera ever-so-slowly panning between the rows of fold-out cast chairs to reveal the next name, it soon had millions glued to their screens for the next big reveal, with the casting announcement quickly trending worldwide. What appeared to be one of Marvel’s simplest – and technically worst – publicity stunts, in fact, turned out to be one of their most ingenious moves yet.
Why The Avengers: Doomsday Cast Announcement Was So Frustrating For Some Fans
Stretching across a mammoth five-hour livestream with a (silent) 15-minute gap between each casting reveal, Marvel certainly rolled the dice with this bold announcement strategy. In an age where media is condensed and consumed into the shortest clips possible to maximize views and fit various algorithms, the movie studios’ social team took a completely opposite approach with this rollout, and it surprisingly paid off.
Marvel’s huge casting announcements typically take place in a packed crowd in Hall H at San Diego Comic Con, with the most memorable and talked-about reveals including Tom Hiddleston surprising fans in his full Loki costume for the Thor: The Dark World panel, Karen Gillan’s shaved head surprise for Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy and Harrison Ford’s hilarious Red Hulk impression and reveal. President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige usually takes the crowd through the biggest reveals, with the cast typically rolled out on stage. Unless you’re Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, that is – they get to make their own announcement videos.
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And yet, as the Avengers Doomsday announcement rolled on with the names of the actors continuing to drop, Marvel Studios literally had millions of viewers watching chairs for hours on end – and often in silence. You’ve got to applaud the team for the absolute audacity of it. As the camera panned to the final chair, none other than Robert Downey Jr. (aka Doctor Doom himself) made an appearance, making the shh gesture, admiring the incredible cast assembled, and then simply walked off with his hands in his pockets.
Yes, you read that right, the whole five-hour build-up literally led to a brief RDJ cameo and the reveal that production is underway. There were no appearances from any other cast members or the directors, and, equally cheeky, there was no Q&A panel or interview. Zero, zilch, nada. The whole live stream was soon condensed into a 1-minute, 34-second teaser for anyone sane enough not to watch for hours on end. Like it or loathe it, though, the format was undeniably a huge talking point, and fans took to social media to either ridicule or applaud the movie studio for their approach.
Why The Avengers: Doomsday Cast Announcement Was One Of Marvel’s Most Ingenious Publicity Stunts Yet
There’s no denying that the MCU has been through a tough spell for a while now, following a blend of disappointing box-office results, mixed-to-negative fan and critical responses to recent releases, and the emergence of the ‘superhero fatigue’ term.
However, those issues seemingly disappeared overnight, as Avengers: Doomsday soon became the most discussed entertainment topic of the day, with several key hashtags quickly trending on all the major social media platforms. Over 12.5 million people tuned into the livestream on X, with #AvengersDoomsday featuring in over 230K posts. Meanwhile, the live stream has racked up over 4 million views on YouTube, with almost 3000 comments. That’s a phenomenal engagement rate for a live stream full of just, well, chairs, revealing the names of actors confirmed to be in the next Avengers installment.
And it didn’t just stop there; the live stream captured the top news story slots at every major entertainment publication, while fans, the media, and even other company accounts united to jump on the bandwagon and create some of the most amusing memes and posts to mark the occasion.
So you’ve got to hand it to the movie studio, as the rollout of the reveal proved to be a hugely effective stunt, especially considering the current positioning of the MCU. Marvel’s social team well and truly nailed the viral marketing angle, with a relatively low-cost activity garnering an incredible return. Especially compared to certain other notable movie marketing campaigns, such as Barbie’s ambitious marketing strategy, which launched more than 100 branding deals in the process.
Starring an array of cast members from various teams and titles such as X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts* and Black Panther, there’s no doubt that Kevin Feige and the Russo Brothers will be rolling out one of their biggest campaigns yet for the press and publicity tour. Until then, maybe the real treasure was the friends (and chair memes) we made along the way.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to release in theaters on May 1, 2026.