One month after Marvel Studios slowly revealed over two dozen members of the cast of Avengers: Doomsday, principal photography on the film has officially begun in the UK. Though it’s only just getting underway, photos of the construction of a large-scale practical set and rumblings of an opening scene at the X-Mansion have made their way online in recent weeks; now, a behind-the-scenes photo released by the Russo brothers looks to confirm the latter.
Shared on Instagram, the first official look from the set of Avengers: Doomsday does not seem to give much away at first glance, though some might argue that seeing “Victor Von Doom” on the director’s chair might settle some concerns that Robert Downey Jr. is playing a Stark Variant. However, a closer look at the background could indeed confirm that the first scenes to be filmed for the movie are set at Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Given that it’s been some time since the interior of the X-Mansion has been visited on screen, it might be easy to overlook that Downey’s chair is positioned to intentionally provide a look at the wall of what can be assumed to be the location for filming on day one…and that wall does indeed look like it belongs inside Xavier’s school. The oak paneling is consistent with how the school has looked in the Fox films and with a large chunk of the cast of the original X-Men trilogy returning for Avengers: Doomsday, that’s unlikely to be a coincidence.
While it’s safe to assume the Russos won’t be following the exact formula they used in making Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, it is likely there will be some resonance in some of the choices they make. Opening Avengers: Doomsday by having Victor Von Doom take on and possibly take out Fox’s OG X-Men would serve the same purpose as having Thanos easily defeat the Hulk and Thor while killing Loki. With X-Men: Days of Future Past having created a divergent timeline in which the events of the original trilogy were undone and the team was alive and well in 2023, the X-Men should be an incredibly formidable superteam and if they can’t stop Doom, who can?
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