On December 18, Dune Part Three and Avengers Doomsday are set to have a theatrical battle for the ages. Where Barbie and Oppenheimer felt like a joint effort to drive up box office sales, what has been coined “Dunesday” feels like an all-out battle to the death for supremacy. These two feel in competition with one another, whereas the Barbenheimer phenomenon was not like that.

Up until now, much of the attention has rightfully been on Dune Part Three. It’s the epic conclusion to one of the best trilogies, perhaps ever, and there have been two otherworldly trailers so far. It’s been all Dune up until this point, with people rightfully suggesting that December 18 belongs to that movie, and Avengers Doomsday is just there.

Finally, though, a legitimate trailer for the movie has dropped. Given what we knew about the movie and how many characters would be in it, it was always going to be either really good or really bad. That’s still the case, but after seeing the trailer, I’m a little more convinced it will end up on the good side.

The Avengers Doomsday Trailer Actually Has Me Hype

While few things will ever be quite as iconic as the Avengers Infinity War and Endgame trailers, the Avengers Doomsday one does a pretty good job of capturing what made those special. The stakes are clear and high, like they were in the trailers for the last two Avengers films. While we don’t have decades of films connecting and leading into Avengers Doomsday, it similarly feels apocalyptic and as if the heroes truly cannot win.

There are so many things in the trailer that immediately pique my interest. For starters, Robert Downey Jr.’s voice as Doctor Doom sounds good. The mask looks good in the fleeting moments we see it, too. So far, so good on that one, and there has been plenty of trepidation over how Marvel will handle RDJ playing Doom. Rightfully so.

I am immediately curious as to how all the timelines will merge and how different characters will link up. The films leading up to Infinity War set the table for how those characters could get together, making it easier to pull off in the movie. That isn’t the case this time, with the Fantastic Four and X-Men essentially needing to jump universes and somehow link up with our heroes all at the beginning of the movie.

Given Loki’s presence in the trailer, it is highly likely that his role as the God of Stories and as the controller of Yggdrasil will factor in. He’s really the only character who could bring the universes together. As for why he would do that and how, that remains to be seen. And since we see him as a TVA agent, I’m extremely curious whether or not there will be more time shenanigans since Loki is no longer an agent and the TVA has fundamentally changed.

I’m also extremely intrigued by Steve Rogers’ return and the fact that he can not only wield Mjolnir but also summon it, too. The hammer was destroyed, and Rogers got old and died. This points to more time shenanigans or an alternate timeline version, which could get convoluted. Perhaps Loki, who would surely be worthy of Mjolnir at this point, is projecting as Steve, which would be fascinating.

But if it truly is Rogers, then his presence may do more harm than good to Sam Wilson’s Captain America. He’s not really been given a chance to shine and has been compared negatively to Rogers, so perhaps Steve is back so he can have a better, more sacrificial sendoff that helps Sam. We shall see.

Doom also opens the trailer by speaking of something coming that “we may not be able to deter.” What on earth could that be? Are we meant to believe that Doom has some altruistic purpose and the Avengers are standing in his way? That would be very Thanos-esque, except we could expect that Doom’s goal isn’t as insane and unnecessary. It likely isn’t Galactus, and there aren’t many Marvel threats that exceed Doom.

Obviously, all of the things I mentioned can go wrong. This movie is clearly taking massive swings, and those can lead to strikeouts. But if they manage to pull this off, it will result in one of the best superhero movies out there. I’m still cautious about this, but after seeing this Avengers Doomsday trailer, I have been more convinced that they’ll succeed than that they will fail.