Avengers: Doomsday trailer: fans say some shots look AI-generated
Some fans say certain shots in the new Avengers: Doomsday trailer look AI-generated. There’s no proof and Marvel hasn’t responded, but the studio used AI on Secret Invasion in 2023 and Disney just put $1 billion into OpenAI.
The first official Avengers: Doomsday trailer landed this week to loud, divided reactions. Amid the hype, one complaint keeps coming up: some fans think a few of the action shots look like they were made with AI.
To be clear up front, nobody has proven that. But the suspicion isn’t coming from nowhere, and it’s worth walking through why.
What fans are actually claiming
The reaction to the trailer is genuinely mixed. Plenty of fans loved it, some felt it didn’t hit the highs of the Infinity War and Endgame teasers, and a smaller group zeroed in on the visual effects. One widely shared comment summed up that camp: “Some of those action shots in that Doomsday trailer straight up look AI-generated.”
The complaint is that certain shots have the slightly off, rubbery, over-smooth look people now associate with the AI clips flooding social media. It doesn’t help that for months, fake AI-generated Doomsday “leak” trailers spread across X and racked up millions of views, training fans to scan every frame for signs of AI. By the time the real trailer arrived, a lot of eyes were already primed to spot it.
Even the poster is coming under scrutiny.
Why the suspicion sticks: Marvel already did this once
Here’s the part that gives the accusation weight. Marvel has used AI before, and it went badly.
In 2023, the opening credits of Marvel’s Secret Invasion were made with generative AI, produced by Method Studios. The director confirmed it, and the backlash was immediate and brutal. Fans called the credits ugly and disgusting, artists called it a “betrayal,” and it landed in the middle of a Hollywood strike where AI replacing creative workers was a central fear. A former Marvel concept artist publicly called the move unethical.
So when fans say a Marvel trailer looks like AI, they’re not inventing a fear out of thin air. They’re remembering that the studio already crossed that line once.
Disney’s $1 billion AI bet
The bigger backdrop is the company that owns Marvel. Disney has been moving aggressively into AI.
It set up an internal AI office staffed with more than 100 people to build tools trained on its own library. Its visual effects house, Industrial Light & Magic, has started using AI-driven “neural rendering” on projects. Former CEO Bob Iger has called AI the most powerful technology the company has ever seen. And in late 2025, Disney put a reported $1 billion into OpenAI, licensing 200-plus characters for use in AI video tools.
The direction is unmistakable: Disney is betting big on AI, out loud. When the parent company is that public about it, fans reasonably wonder how far the tools reach into the actual movies.
There’s a money angle too. Big-budget visual effects are enormously expensive, and Marvel has a long, ugly reputation for overworking and underpaying the VFX studios it depends on. AI tools promise to cut those costs. That financial pressure is real, and it’s a big reason the suspicion refuses to die.
The innocent explanation: unfinished VFX
Now the other side, because it matters. There’s a completely ordinary reason a trailer shot can look “off,” and it has nothing to do with AI.
Avengers: Doomsday doesn’t hit theaters until December 18, 2026, which is five months out. Trailers this far ahead of release almost always contain shots with unfinished visual effects. Compositing isn’t done, lighting isn’t final, and characters can look rubbery or weightless in exactly the way people now call “AI.” When earlier Doomsday footage leaked, even fans who confirmed it was real noted the visuals were simply unfinished.
In other words, “this looks like AI” and “this is an unfinished VFX shot from a movie that’s half a year away” produce the same rough image. And in 2026, with actual AI slop everywhere, people reach for the AI explanation first.
Marvel isn’t saying
The one thing that would settle this is a straight answer, and Marvel hasn’t given one. The studio rarely confirms or denies how specific shots are made, and it has stayed quiet here too.
That silence is its own problem. A company that used AI once, works under a parent betting a billion dollars on it, and won’t respond when fans ask is a company that’s going to keep getting the question.
Until Marvel says otherwise, the safe answer is unfinished visual effects, not a machine.
Probably.
But the studio spent the benefit of the doubt back in 2023, and it hasn’t earned it back. Fans will keep freeze-framing Doomsday until someone official tells them what they’re actually looking at.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
D/REZZED is part of Clownfish TV. For more news, views, and rants on gaming, tech, and pop culture, visit clownfishtv.com. Watch the show on YouTube at @ClownfishTV where new episodes drop daily. Subscribe to the Clownfish TV podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Sign up for the free newsletter at more.clownfishtv.com.
Hat Tips:
ScreenRant (July 20, 2026) — the mixed first reactions to the official trailer and the fan comments calling some shots AI-generated
ComicBook.com / IGN / The Express Tribune — the months of fake AI “leak” trailers that conditioned fans to suspect AI, and the “real but unfinished VFX” note on earlier leaked footage
Polygon / Deadline / VentureBeat (2023) — Marvel’s confirmed use of AI for the Secret Invasion opening credits and the backlash
AP / Yahoo Finance / Futurum (2023–2025) — Disney’s AI task force and Office of Technology Enablement, ILM’s neural rendering, Iger’s AI comments, and the $1B OpenAI investment