A new poster for “Avengers: Doomsday” puts Doctor Doom in front of three masked Latverian witches. The image gives fans the clearest look yet at the villain’s inner circle, and it settles nothing about who the witches are.
The artwork surfaced this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con Málaga in Spain. It shows Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom on a staircase outside his castle, with the witches posed behind him in different colored robes. Accounts of the colors vary slightly, with outlets listing combinations of green, orange, red and purple. Marvel Studios has not published a detailed breakdown, and some coverage treats the poster’s origin as reported rather than confirmed.
The witches appeared earlier in the film’s marketing. A wider trailer shown in the ScreenX format glimpsed one of them kneeling before Doom. The poster adds two more and keeps every face hidden behind a metal mask.
That secrecy has fueled speculation. One popular theory says the witch in red is Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff, while another links the green-robed figure to Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie from “Loki.” Agatha Harkness has also surfaced in fan discussion. Nothing on the poster confirms any of it.
A more modest reading exists. The witches could serve as Doom’s disposable enforcers, a squad the Avengers cut through on the way to him. IGN has noted that the group might amount to little more than drones, though recent turns in the franchise have pushed many viewers toward bigger answers.
Comics history gives the witches plausible weight. Doom’s mother, Cynthia von Doom, belonged to a clan of Romani witches in Latveria’s forests and bargained her soul to the demon Mephisto. Sorcery has run alongside science in the character’s story for decades.
Anthony and Joe Russo direct the film, which Marvel has scheduled for Dec. 18. An official description promises heroes from three universes will “face an existential threat unlike anything they’ve ever encountered.” The full ensemble remains unannounced.
For now, Doom stands at the center of the poster and his witches stand behind him, anonymous. Marvel appears content to let that question stay open for the next two months.
