Did The Russo Brothers Just Reveal Avengers vs. X-Men? Avengers: Doomsday Tease Hints at the Plot

The Russos are back at it: another cryptic tease, another reason for fans to squint at a set photo like it is the Zapruder film. And yes, this one looks like a big neon sign for Avengers vs X-Men.

The tease

Joe and Anthony Russo posted a new Avengers: Doomsday teaser image on their Instagram, and it came with a simple nudge to the fandom brain trust:

"look closely"

The shot itself is a behind-the-scenes view of the set. Nothing flashy, more like a backstage maze of gear and staging. But this is the Russos we are talking about, and hiding clues in plain sight has basically become their thing.

What the photo seems to spell

Reading the image left to right, the shapes of objects in the frame line up to form three letters: A, V, and X. Put together, that points to AvX, which is shorthand for Avengers vs X-Men. Subtle? Not really. Effective? Absolutely.

Why that tracks

• They have done this before. The Russos famously revealed the Avengers: Endgame subtitle by arranging objects in a photo so the word was hidden in plain view. Same playbook here.
• The cast points that way. A number of X-Men are already locked for Doomsday, including many actors and characters carried over from the old Fox X-Men continuity.
• The rumor mill has been here for months. Once those X-Men casting confirmations hit, AvX became the obvious talking point.
• The comics blueprint exists. Marvel ran a 2012 crossover literally called Avengers vs X-Men, which would be a clean conceptual lift for a movie this size.

Could there be more to it?

Always possible. The Russos like nesting clues inside clues, so maybe there is another read of the image we have not cracked yet. But at face value, it looks like they are all but saying Doomsday will lean hard into AvX.

The when

Avengers: Doomsday is set to hit theaters on December 18, 2026.