The One Huge Rule Avengers: Doomsday’s Release Breaks Answers The Question We’ve All Been Asking

The one major MCU rule Avengers: Doomsday breaks with its release date explains a key question that almost everyone who's been watching the build-up for the film has asked at some point. The MCU timeline has been through a considerable period of changes in the past few years, and Avengers: Doomsday is a prime example of that in many ways.

Having gone from Avengers: The Kang Dynasty to Avengers: Doomsday, the fifth Avengers film has already transformed before our eyes in more ways than one. This has also led to more questions than ever before being raised about the movie, especially now that Avengers: Doomsday's first teasers have emerged - though the big MCU rule the film already breaks helps to answer one of the biggest questions about the movie.

Avengers: Doomsday Breaks The MCU's Biggest Release Tradition In A Major Way

It's clear when taking even a vague look at the MCU release roster that Avengers: Doomsday is set to release with a far bigger gap between it and Avengers: Endgame than can be seen with any of the prior installments in the series - but the extent of this is important to note.

The 7 years between Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Doomsday's releases mark the biggest gap between Avengers installments of all time. In fact, this is more than double any prior delays between Avengers movies, since there were three years between The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, then three years between Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War, and only one year between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

While the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame means a longer wait was somewhat warranted, the 7-year gap between Endgame and Doomsday is also notably the second longest-ever wait between two movies in the same series in the MCU, having been beaten only by the 8 years between Captain America: Civil War and Captain America: Brave New World.

Focusing on this time delay is key in terms of underlining why perspectives around Avengers: Doomsday oftentimes focus on the idea the film feels less set up, or in a more disjointed place than its predecessors. While there are other factors, the fact there's been a wait of over double the time between any prior Avengers movies goes a long way to explain feelings and concerns around Doomsday and its place in the franchise.

Avengers: Doomsday's Release Answers A Crucial Question About The 2026 Movie

Looking at the release traditions that Avengers: Doomsday breaks helps to explain why audiences have been so divided about the upcoming 2026 movie. Though there have been wider story issues and risky-looking moves that have exacerbated negative perceptions, it seems that this longer delay in a series would have always affected the franchise's metaphorical rhythm in the end.

This all helps to answer the question of why the decision was made to bring back Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans' Steve Rogers for the film. Focusing on MCU actors and characters that audiences have years of history with makes particular sense logistically to try and balance this gap in the release order out, even if doing so comes with its own fair share of potential pitfalls to navigate.

With Avengers: Secret Wars set to release the year after Doomsday, it seems highly likely that the MCU will avoid replicating the 2026 Avengers film's specific delay ever again going forward, especially since Doomsday's later release date was in part the result of external circumstances like a worldwide pandemic. That said, the unusual circumstances Avengers: Doomsday finds itself in should make its release all the more interesting.