Avengers: Doomsday directors release new cryptic set photo, and Marvel fans are scratching their heads over what it's trying to tell us

• Avengers: Doomsday's directors have shared a new behind-the-scenes image online
• Joe and Anthony Russo want fans to "look hard" for clues within the pictures
• Nobody can agree on what it's trying to tell us about the Marvel movie

Marvel fans are scrambling to solve a new Avengers: Doomsday mystery after a new behind-the-scenes (BTS) image was shared online.

Yesterday (September 30), the movie's directors, Joe and Anthony Russo, took to Instagram to post a cryptic BTS picture from the film's set. A caption accompanying the photograph asks fans to "look hard" at said snap, too, thereby suggesting there might be something big hiding in plain sight.

At first glance, there's not much we can glean about the next Avengers movie. Indeed, the monochromatic photograph only seems to show an unidentifiable individual – I'm assuming it's one of the Russos – sitting on a chair in a backstage area of an indoor set.

The person is surrounded by a lighting rig, a giant blue screen, a tent, and other filming equipment that's been positioned with the aim of telling us something significant about the Marvel Phase 6 flick.

This isn't the first time the Russo brothers have teased the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) fanbase about one of their films with a BTS image.

In 2018, another black-and-white backstage picture, which was also accompanied by a "look hard" caption, had fans scrambling to solve a similar puzzle. Back then, people worked out that the photograph contained the letters 'A' and 'E', which helped them work out the title of the film we'd soon know to be Avengers: Endgame.

Given the similarities between these snaps, it's perhaps unsurprising that fans are taking a near-identical approach to unlocking this Avengers 5 picture's secrets. Indeed, a thread on r/marvelstudiosspoilers is full of users trying to decode its puzzle using the same letter-based solution.

Comment from r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers

At the time of publication, the prevailing theory is that the photograph is hinting at something to do with the movie's plot. Numerous replies suggest that part of Doomsday's overarching narrative will pit The Avengers against the X-Men because the letters 'A' for 'Avengers', 'V' for 'versus', and 'X' for 'X-Men', are formed by various objects within the image.

This isn't the first time that an Avengers versus X-Men fan theory has appeared online. Following a chair-based livestream that confirmed the initial 27-strong cast for Avengers: Doomsday, some amateur detectives theorized that a single chair's X-style shadow had dropped a big clue about Avengers: Doomsday's story, suggesting that Earth's Mightiest Heroes would battle the iconic mutants at some point in the film.

Comment from r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers

Of course, others are reading completely different things into the image based on letters they think they can see.

Some believe it's got something to do with A.I.M, aka Advanced Idea Mechanics, which is a science-based criminal organization that first appeared in Marvel Comics in July 1966. However, considering that Doomsday has already got a lot to do from storytelling and character perspectives, I'd be very surprised if it marks the introduction of a villainous tech firm in the MCU.

Others believe they can see multiple versions of the letter 'A' in the snap, indicating that there will be numerous Avengers teams in Doomsday. Meanwhile, one or two fans think the person sitting in the chair is Robert Downey Jr wearing his Doctor Doom mask, which we caught the briefest of glimpses of in The Fantastic Four: First Steps' mid-credits scene. There's also the odd comment from people who can't believe the Russos are pulling the same cryptic move they did with Avengers: Endgame, with one Redditor writing "not this s*** again".

Will fans solve this latest Avengers: Doomsday mystery? That remains to be seen. What do you think? Do you agree with any of the above fan theories, or are we missing an obvious clue? Let me know in the comments.

Once you're done, read my dedicated guide to Avengers: Doomsday, and check out more coverage of the forthcoming flick below.

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