In the "Doomsday" trailer unveiled at D23 2026, a mere few-second shot of a ruined city sent fans scrambling to analyze the buildings frame by frame. Combined with earlier leaks and the end-credits scene from "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," they've pieced together which universe this New York might actually belong to.
The shot lasts only a few seconds: a city almost entirely destroyed, buildings collapsed, thick smoke rising — yet at its center, one large rectangular patch of green space remains intact. In the new "Avengers: Doomsday" trailer released at D23 2026, shots of Doctor Doom, Mister Fantastic, Thor, and a handful of X-Men and Sentinels naturally stole the spotlight. But what fans have actually been screenshotting and dissecting frame by frame is this brief, almost blink-and-you'll-miss-it "city destruction" shot.
Zooming in, that patch of green has been identified as Central Park, meaning the location is almost certainly Manhattan, New York — some fans even claim they can spot the outline of the Chrysler Building in the bottom right corner. The problem is, "Doomsday" won't feature just one New York. Marvel's official synopsis has already stated that the film will send "heroes from three different universes on a collision course," and producer Kevin Feige has mentioned the film draws inspiration from classic comic storylines involving universes colliding with one another. In other words, this ruined New York could belong to the main MCU universe, the Fantastic Four universe, or Fox's X-Men universe.
TrailerAfter the footage dropped, discussion quickly shifted toward a fourth possibility: that this might not be any of the three main universes at all.
The Tobey Maguire Spider-Man and Wolverine opening scene rumor was already circulating before the trailer even dropped
Even before D23, a fairly specific version of "Doomsday's" opening had already been making the rounds online: Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man universe faces an "Incursion" event, with Deadpool and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine arriving in this world attempting to destroy Tobey's universe in order to save another. This eventually erupts into a full-blown battle, with some versions of the rumor even claiming they're wielding a universe-destroying weapon built by Beast. This leak predates the destroyed-NYC footage by several months, and after the D23 trailer dropped, several unfinished-looking images allegedly showing Tobey's Spider-Man clashing with Hugh Jackman's Wolverine — with Deadpool even appearing in the frame — began circulating online. None of these images have been officially confirmed, and given how easy it now is to fake set photos with AI, they should be taken with a grain of salt.
Things get even more interesting when you line up this leaked storyline against the end-credits scene from "Spider-Man: Brand New Day." In that scene, Ned's Spider-Man tracker starts searching from Queens, New York, then zooms out — first across the U.S., then Earth — before finally locking onto a signal out in space, flashing "SPIDER-MAN WILL RETURN." Whether that Spider-Man being tracked down is Tom Holland's has been a constant point of debate among fans. If Tobey's universe really does get destroyed at the start of "Doomsday," his Spider-Man wouldn't necessarily die along with it — he could instead be whisked away by the TVA right before the destruction, getting swept into the future Battleworld storyline and tying into "Avengers: Secret Wars." That would offer another explanation for why the tracker's search radius extends beyond Earth entirely.
Deadpool and Hugh Jackman's promo "photobombs" are being read as hints they've already joined the fight
Deadpool previously pulled his signature stunt of crashing "Doomsday" promotion at San Diego Comic-Con, and this time at D23 it was Hugh Jackman's turn to show up in person, pitching himself to Marvel directly on camera while Ryan Reynolds' voice fed him lines from off-screen. Both of them showing up back-to-back in official promotional content has fans reading it as a sign their involvement is already locked in. All of the above remains speculation and fan theorizing based on leaks, none of it confirmed by Marvel. "Avengers: Doomsday" is slated for an early release in Taiwan on December 16, 2026.
