The MCU’s newest Thunderbolts* trailer helps to justify why the wait between Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Doomsday is so long, via its own exploration of how this gap in the Avengers’ story affects the world and its story. Despite still being some time off releasing, the MCU’s Avengers: Doomsday has been a key topic of discussion when it comes to superhero movies in the past months and years. This is partially because the upcoming MCU movie is a huge part of one of the biggest superhero franchises of all time, but also because of the unusually long wait for its debut.

While previous Avengers movies didn’t release too close together, they generally stayed within a relatively close ballpark of one another time wise. The longest wait between the existing four Avengers films has previously been that of 3 years – with this being the space between both The Avengers and Avengers: Age Of Ultron as well as Age Of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War. As such, the fact Avengers: Doomsday will have taken over double this time to release is decidedly notable – but also something that the new Thunderbolts* trailer arguably works into a strength for its story.

2025’s Thunderbolts* Trailer Makes The Delay Between Avengers: Endgame And Avengers: Doomsday Feel More Intentional

Thunderbolts* Exploring The Long-Term Aftermath Of Endgame Helps Build To Avengers 5

The new Thunderbolts* trailer focuses on what makes the rag-tag team of former villains and current antiheroes so unconventional by MCU standards – namely, that they’re very different to the Avengers, both in their more historically questionable moral alignments and their respective skillsets largely being relatively similar, which Yelena points out directly by saying, “so what, we all just punch and shoot?” However, it’s strongly suggested the intention of the team is to serve as a sort of quasi-Avengers replacement, with Valentina Allegra de Fontaine making a speech effectively stating her intention to fill this current void.

Valentina states that “The Avengers are not coming. Who will keep the American people safe?” with Bucky shown in the background, shortly before the former Winter Soldier is shown telling a tied up group including Red Guardian, US Agent, Yelena Belova and Ghost that they’re going to help him stop a major threat – which, based on the trailer, appears to be that of Marvel’s Void. As such, The Avengers having seemingly been inactive for years explains why the Thunderbolts come to be, and also serves to justify why some figures might become heroes in this time without them present.

Given the Void is a mᴀssive threat – based on both the comics and the trailer sH๏τ of what appears to be the MCU’s Void flattening a person into a shadow – it stands to reason that characters who otherwise may have been inclined to leave the problem with the idea that the Avengers would handle things will instead find themselves in a very different position. Seeing the world deal without the original Avengers lineup that handled major threats also offers the opportunity for further huge developments, justifying the prolonged absence of the Avengers movies in much the same way Thunderbolts* does.

Why Delaying Avengers 5 Until So Long After Endgame Makes Sense

More Than One Factor Helps Explain Why There’s Such A Long Gap Between The Fourth & Fifth Avengers Movie

Though the MCU has arguably suffered from not having the connective tissue that the Avengers movies offer the franchise, it does still make sense that the decision was made to hold on the movie series for so long. Avengers: Endgame crafted a potentially unmatchable movie in terms of both scale and story, with the MCU having built up to this crescendo for 11 years by the point of the 2019 film’s release. Avengers: Doomsday coming 7 years after this point offers a chance for this distance to make comparisons less pressing, and ensure things feel reset for the new era.

Thunderbolts* offers more reasoning for this decision by showing that the delay makes sense on a story level, too. Though releases soon after Endgame like The Falcon & The Winter Soldier and WandaVision dealt with the immediate fallout of both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame itself, leaving a longer in-universe gap between the last time audiences saw the Avengers in operation and their eventual reformation makes it feel more meaningful, and allows for stories to develop later down the line that further underline the poignancy of Endgame and what it meant for the MCU’s heroes.

Of course, there’s also the real-world complications to keep in mind. While the most recently notable event to have impacted the fifth Avengers movie was the movie’s big shift from focusing on Kang as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty to switching gears to focus on Doctor Doom in the now reтιтled Avengers: Doomsday, this isn’t the only complication the movie has faced that appears to have encouraged a bigger gap between the Avengers movies.

The pandemic also slowed down the overall speed the MCU’s new overarching story could feasibly move at, and the decision to reduce the number of MCU releases per year – while ostensibly the best decision in terms of not overloading audiences – meant that things ultimately had to develop more slowly. With this also in mind, it makes sense that the franchise would develop storylines that could justify this longer wait and build to the fifth film further down the line, rather than unveiling an Avengers movie at a point in time that didn’t make sense for it.

Thunderbolts* Shows How The MCU Can Make The Long Wait Between Avengers: Endgame And Avengers: Doomsday Work

Thunderbolts Balances Tying Its Story To The Past & Future

Many of the early releases that followed Avengers: Endgame saw criticism for the limited way they explored the full extent of Endgame‘s aftermath, with some movies and shows only making limited references to the events that changed the MCU forever, or more or less ignoring it altogether. While this may have seemed like a misstep to a degree at the time, in the bigger picture, this may mean that later releases can more justifiably now explore the unique long-term ramifications of the world being without the Avengers for years without it seeming like the MCU is repeating itself too much.

With that said, Thunderbolts* appears set to handle this potentially troublesome balancing act of giving significance to the past while also avoiding focusing on it too much with aplomb, teeing up for the movies around it to also repeat its approach. Since the movie interacts with the idea that the team are created as a result of the Avengers and their current absence – but that its focus is on the Thunderbolts themselves and their own adventures – the team’s formation and future takes precedent, even as further bricks are put in place to build the path forward for Avengers: Doomsday.

Upcoming MCU Movies

• 
  
  

  
  

  Captain America: Brave New World

  Release Date

  
  February 14, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Powered by

  
  

  
  Expand
  Collapse
  

• 
  
  

  
  

  Thunderbolts*

  Release Date

  
  May 2, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Powered by

  
  

  
  Expand
  Collapse
  

• 
  
  

  
  

  The Fantastic Four: First Steps

  Release Date

  
  July 25, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Powered by

  
  

  
  Expand
  Collapse
  

• 
  
  

  
  

  Avengers: Doomsday (2026)

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  Powered by

  
  

  
  
  Expand
  Collapse
  

• 
  
  

  
  

  Spider-Man Homecoming 4

  Release Date

  
  July 24, 2026
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Powered by

  
  

  
  Expand
  Collapse
  

• 
  
  

  
  

  Avengers: Secret Wars

  Release Date

  
  May 7, 2027
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Powered by

  
  

  
  Expand
  Collapse