How Disney Is Using AI To Promote ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

Robert Downey Jr is anti-AI, but it will play a big part in promoting 'Doomsday' (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)Getty Images for DisneyJust over a year ago Robert Downey Jr. rocked Hollywood with the announcement that not only will he never let studios create replicas of him with Artificial Intelligence (AI) but he has instructed his lawyers to sue anyone who does so after he dies. It couldn’t have been much more ironic.At the very same time, video sharing platforms like YouTube were being deluged with clips purporting to be footage from Downey Jr.’s upcoming Avengers: Doomsday Marvel super hero team up movie.Thanks to the technical wizardry of generative AI, the footage features photorealistic digital doppelgängers of Downey Jr. and his Marvel co-stars, complete with pitch-perfect recreations of their voices. Some of the clips even have a deliberately grainy filter and are partially obscured to make it seem like they have been covertly filmed. They are being viewed millions of times lining the pockets of the creators of the clips without a dime ending up in the hands of Downey Jr. or Disney.The stakes couldn’t be much higher for the media giant. Doomsday and its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars, are expected to be its most expensive Marvel movies surpassing even the $1.3 billion it spent on the previous two Avengers films which were released just before the pandemic.It paid off as 2019’s Avengers: Endgame briefly became the highest-grossing film in history with worldwide takings of $2.8 billion. However, since then Marvel has lost its punching power. With a massive 37 movies in the inter-connected Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) audiences have suffered from super hero fatigue.MORE FOR YOUIt contributed to a string of Marvel movies disappointing at the box office with the nadir being 2023’s The Marvels which only grossed $206.1 million giving it the lowest takings of any instalment in the MCU. The outlook is equally bleak on the Disney+ streaming platform.Nielsen recently reported that Marvel's latest film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, generated over 4.9 million views in its first five days giving it the worst streaming debut of any MCU movie on Disney+. It is a particularly concerning development as the movie leads directly into Doomsday with Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom character even featuring in its after-credits stinger.'The Fantastic Four' recently had the worst Disney+ debut of any MCU movie © 2025 20th Century Studios / © and ™ 2025 MARVEL.MARVEL STUDIOSWith so much on the line you might have thought Disney would want to differentiate its official Doomsday footage from the AI fakes which weaken its exclusivity. However, in fact, it has taken a step which could propagate even more of them and make it harder to tell that they aren’t genuine.The studio is reportedly taking a mighty gamble by showcasing the first footage from the film in a way which has never been done before.According to The Hollywood Reporter, there will be four different trailers for Doomsday with the first due to debut in theaters on December 19, precisely a year and a day before the movie premieres.The report claims that each trailer will run for a week before switching to the next giving theater-goers reason to return. Crucially, it adds that the trailers will specifically play alongside Avatar: Fire and Ash in an attempt to get diehards to see the film multiple times. If the trailers were released concurrently online on Disney’s social media channels it would defeat this strategy so they are expected to exclusively play in theaters.This "unique rollout", as THR describes it, is all the more extraordinary as it suggests that Disney believes dedicated fans will need an added incentive to rewatch Avatar: Fire and Ash. If THR is correct it seems like an embarrassing and unnecessary step for Disney and Avatar’s visionary director James Cameron as the first two Avatar movies didn't need to resort to gimmicks to encourage people to rewatch them. Indeed, the first film in the series dethroned Endgame as the highest-grossing movie of all time, a record it holds to this day.Disney is obviously aware that if the trailer for Doomsday doesn't drop on its online channels when it releases in theaters it will fuel even more AI videos, this time claiming to be the official footage.The 'Avengers: Doomsday' trailers will debut during 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' © 2025 20th Century Studios.

All Rights Reserved.20TH CENTURY STUDIOSOf course, no amount of anti-piracy warnings in theaters will stop some unscrupulous individuals from covertly recording the trailers in the same way that the five minute prologue to Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey recently leaked online despite exclusively playing in theaters. However, there haven't been an abundance of AI videos of The Odyssey in the run up to this as there have been with Doomsday. With official footage in theaters and AI clips online it will be tough to tell which clips actually come from the movie and which are fake.It may seem like a foolhardy strategy as it's tough to imagine many people paying for multiple visits to Avatar just to see the Doomsday trailer when it will inevitably get leaked online. Furthermore, if it gets mistaken for one of the many AI videos Disney will lose control over the message in the content. However, both of these downsides could be outweighed by the prize on offer which is what makes this strategy extremely smart.The more views there are of any kind of Doomsday footage (real or fake), the more buzz there is about the movie despite the franchise being in the doldrums. Likewise, the more mystery there will be about whether the footage on show is genuine. In turn, that should increase the attention on the official trailer when Disney finally drops it on its own channels. In short, the studio is indirectly using AI to its advantage.The footage itself is just the start of this elaborate strategy as there are already (unconfirmed) reports that the Doomsday trailers are being sold on the black market for $15,000 after being sent to theaters to go in their pipelines.It isn’t the first time that an Avengers movie has generated this kind of publicity. The first film got worldwide exposure in 2011 after a copy of Samuel L. Jackson's script was stolen from Marvel's production office and was sold online. The studio hasn't had such a happy ending from its AI stunts.In 2023 Marvel faced a fan backlash after it came to light that AI was used to make the introduction to its Secret Invasion streaming show. It was the straw that broke the camel's back and Secret Invasion hasn't been renewed since its final episode scored just 7% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes – a record low for an MCU show.Disney previously faced a backlash over the use of AI in 'Secret Invasion'. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.Courtesy of Marvel StudiosUndeterred, Disney continued to experiment with AI as the technology became more pervasive. So much so that it can be unclear whether or not it has been used. Just last week Disneyland Paris played a video at a fan event of an upcoming merchandise range narrated by a robotic voice."The merchandise video voice over is clearly AI, a monotone voice struggling to say Rapunzel. Please stop," wrote DLP Report.

The Disneyland Paris PR teams give the account access to the events but is known for casting a highly critical eye over them and followed up its original post with a photo of a silvery mannequin accompanied by the description "me watching the merchandise AI video." The posts were picked up widely by the media and other fan accounts around the world with prominent personality Scott Gustin remarking that “this sucks.”This kind of retaliation can have severe repercussions for brands as McDonald’s recently found out in the Netherlands when it took down an AI-generated Christmas advertisement following fierce feedback online. Coca-Cola too experienced excoriating criticism of its latest AI Christmas advert though it hasn't been dropped and a report from analytics company Social Sprout found it had a 61% "positive sentiment rating" online.Sensing where the wind is blowing, Disney announced last week that it it would invest $1 billion in industry giant OpenAI and had signed a three-year licensing with it. Under this agreement, users of OpenAI’s Sora program will be able to input prompts to generate videos featuring more than 200 masked, animated or creature characters from Disney and its Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars franchises.The partnership was forecast in October in a report by this author which said that as a result of AI charging inexorably forward, "studios may have no choice but to collaborate with it." The Writers Guild of America (WGA) sees things differently.In response to Disney’s announcement, the WGA said that the deal appears to "sanction" OpenAI's "theft of our work." Disney disagrees and points out that the deal does not include any talent likenesses or voices and does not allow OpenAI to use its intellectual property to train its AI models. However, a curated selection of AI videos are expected to debut on Disney+ which alone could take work away from animators.The true impact will only be seen when the partnership launches in early 2026. By then the unlicensed Doomsday videos will have racked up millions more views delivering promotion without costing Disney a dime. That really is a dream ticket.