‘Avengers: Doomsday’ At D23 Needed To Be More

During the Disney Entertainment Showcase at the Honda Center, Kevin Feige brought out Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Hayley Atwell to unveil a special look at Avengers: Doomsday. The special look played inside the Honda Center to thunderous applause and excited reactions.

Yet that same special look was publicly released online.

It was also the same special look that was revealed exclusively to Hall H attendees at San Diego Comic-Con last month.

Avengers: Doomsday is Disney’s biggest film of the year by a country mile, and for their biggest fan event, they couldn’t have given the Honda Center some newer and even more exclusive footage?

Not to mention, it felt like the segment with Feige, RDJ, Evans, and Atwell was a tad bit short considering how big of a film Doomsday is. I will cover the D23 exclusivity issue at length in my newsletter this month, but did Disney really need to dedicate time to Romy & Michele 2 (a Hulu film), Bluey (the target audience wasn’t in the arena), and Ice Age (an aging non-Disney franchise) over Avengers: Doomsday? I do think the Disney Entertainment Showcase has to be difficult to plan, but Marvel Studios shouldn’t be on the shorter end during it. Maybe Marvel Studios was being respectful of its timing, but still, Doomsday and X-Men are huge. They should’ve taken their time and made those moments a tad bit bigger.

Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con had more of the Avengers: Doomsday cast there. Imagine if they were able to get a few more people to join Feige, RDJ, Evans, and Atwell on stage? The pops inside the Honda Center would’ve been amazing. Fans would have been going crazy, and it’s always surreal to see this take place inside an arena. Now, granted, Marvel Studios learned its sins from D23’s past. They delivered the goods with an X-Men cast reveal. I’m over the moon about that! It’s about time that Disney & Marvel embraced the Honda Center as a big event platform. I still think Doomsday needed to be more, though, at the Honda Center.

I get that nothing ever stays secret inside the Honda Center, but it would’ve been cool to get an additional look, preview, or surprise announcement. Yes, we got a funny Hugh Jackman/Ryan Reynolds video, but at the end of the day that was cryptic comedy, and we don’t know if that’s truly going to pay off come December. Disney can’t police the footage coming out of the Honda Center. There are too many people, and too many angles. Yet this year they didn’t even make an announcement to tell people not to record certain segments. I do think it devalues the exclusivity of D23 and the Honda Center when everything is leaked, and nothing remains exclusive. That’s also not entirely on Disney; I do blame the people in the arena who are very quick to record and release exclusive footage online.

My main point comes back to the fact that a lot of fans pay a ton of money to experience D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, specifically the Honda Center Showcases. When everything from the Honda Center gets released for free, whether it’s from Disney’s official social channels or non-official sources, it devalues the event. It’s not just a Disney Entertainment issue; Disney Experiences live-streamed their event on Disney+, and it definitely creates an argument for why people should go to this event if it’s going to be available in real-time for free. Truthfully, it’s a D23-wide issue that I’ll be dissecting in my newsletter. Yet the folks who attended D23 in the Honda Center paid way more than the people attending Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. I don’t know your concept of value, but if folks are paying more, they quite simply deserve an experience that is on par or better. They deserve a bit more than seeing the same first look that was shared a month earlier and is released to the general public at the same time.

So did Honda Center attendees get anything exclusive related to Avengers: Doomsday? Attendees did receive Doom Brew from Happy Products on the way out of the arena. Happy Products is Robert Downey Jr.’s coffee company. After all, that was a neat surprise.

At the end of the day, I think Disney needs to determine what the value is in the Honda Center. D23 either should announce way in advance that it’s live-streaming everything, including the Entertainment Showcase, or they should legitimately find ways to make things exclusive again. Even if it requires phones being put away within the Honda Center for non-media attendees. At the end of the day, I just think Avengers: Doomsday at D23 needed to be a bit more.

Zach Perilstein is the Editor-in-Chief of the Boardwalk Times