The Best Thing in the New “Avengers: Doomsday” Trailer Isn’t Doom, It’s How Sue Storm Talks About Him

For over a year, Marvel Studios has made Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom look cool with spectacular appearances. On Friday, they finally showed what they should have done long ago: give him a voice.

A new Avengers: Doomsday trailer debuted at D23, the annual Disney fan event in Anaheim, ahead of the film’s theatrical release on December 18. It begins with Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, saying that Victor “is the smartest guy in every room” but that he “used to be different.” Marvel already revealed this line in the Doomsday countdown livestream by dropping clips of Kirby’s narration as the clock ticked down to the panel.

This brief narration packs quite a punch. Four lines tell us more about the character than a year of throne shots and stained glass imagery. Sue doesn’t brief the Avengers about a stranger. She describes someone she knew and, judging by the sorrow in Kirby’s voice, someone she cared about. Doom enters the world with baggage, something that is rarely seen in Marvel villains.

The narration reveals that he “used to be kind,” that everything he loved was taken from him, and that she knew he was lost but didn’t know he was broken. Broken is the crucial concept here. It changes how we see the entire movie. Danger from Marvel villains is never in short supply; what they lack is depth.

The clip continues with Sue talking to Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, and Letitia Wright’s Black Panther, after which Pedro Pascal’s Mister Fantastic confronts Victor regarding the potential worldwide disaster. Doom tells them they all live a stolen life, and the clip ends with Thor being pushed away as Downey says Doom reports to him.

Of course, fans couldn’t help but notice the joke here. Sue describes Victor as the smartest man in every room, while Reed Richards is right there. Good. Let it sting. This establishes the marriage’s fragile nature, and Marvel plans to develop it further in the next two films.

Some critics don’t like it. One described the D23 cut as not exciting and mostly reused footage from the July cut. The cast list is still impressive, with about 30 leads in one film, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, written by Michael Waldron and Stephen McFeely, and scored by Alan Silvestri. Such an extensive cast can overwhelm everybody.

That is where the Sue framing becomes so important. In a film with 30 lead characters, the audience needs a single strong relationship to hang on to, and Marvel made the right choice. They are not asking fans to be afraid of Doom. They are asking fans to care about Victor.

Tickets are already available. Judging by those four lines, this movie finally starts to come alive.