Joining Robert Downey Jr. as Victor von Doom, a.k.a. Doctor Doom, in Avengers: Doomsday is an assembly of A-list Marvel talent from across the cinematic universe.
As production on the next MCU event film kicks off this week, the studio confirmed returning stars over the course of a livestream video that slowly revealed the actors’ chairs on set. Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/Invisible Woman), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/the new Captain America), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier), Letitia Wright (Shuri/the new Black Panther), Wyatt Russell (John Walker/U.S. Agent), Tenoch Huerta Mejia (Namor the Submariner), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing) were announced within the first two hours of the livestream.
Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), Kelsey Grammer (Beast/Hank McCoy), Lewis Pullman (“Bob” from Thunderbolts*), Danny Ramirez (Joaquin Torres/the new Falcon), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch), Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic), (David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Winston Duke (M’Baku), Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost), and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) were confirmed later on.
But the biggest announcements were saved for last. Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier/Professor X), Ian McKellen (Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto), Alan Cumming (Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler), Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), and James Marsden (Scott Summers/Cyclops) join fellow X-Men alum Grammer among the cast. And then came the news that Channing Tatum will officially reprise his role of Gambit from Deadpool & Wolverine in Avengers: Doomsday.
The 5.5-hour livestream concluded with Downey walking down the line before taking a seat in the final chair, which unsurprisingly had his name on it. The stream then cut to a slide that said, “Avengers: Doomsday now in production.”
Stewart and McKellen headlined the original Fox-owned X-Men movie franchise, which effectively ended when Disney bought the studio and started incorporating those characters into their own Avengers lineup. Stewart’s Xavier was the first to be inducted with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He was followed by Grammer, another X-Men alum, who made a cameo appearance as Beast in a post-credits scene tagged onto The Marvels.
Romijn and Marsden first appeared as the shape-shifting mutant Mystique and leader of the X-Men Cyclops in the franchise’s first film from 2000. Cumming arrived in the next movie, 2003’s X2: X-Men United, as the teleporting, blue-skinned Nightcrawler.
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Deadpool & Wolverine, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as the titular dynamic duo, became the introduction for many of Marvel’s mutants into the MCU. Tatum fulfilled his dream of playing Gambit in that film after his once-planned spinoff movie was squashed in light of Disney’s takeover of Fox. Reynolds signaled in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, however, that Marvel liked his performance.
“I honestly don’t know what goes on behind closed doors in the bookkeeping sessions at Marvel, but I do know that they’re obsessed with him in that role,” Reynolds said.
After the release of Deadpool & Wolverine, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige confirmed this next phase of the franchise would introduce more X-Men characters and that the story of Avengers: Secret Wars “really leads us into a new age of mutants and of the X-Men.
Some of these faces we haven’t technically met yet outside of trailers. For instance, Kirby, Moss-Bachrach, Pascal, and Quinn won’t debut as their characters until this summer’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25). Mejia was one of the bigger surprise return announcements, having debuted as the prime antagonist in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The same goes for Hiddleston. The last time we saw Loki physically was in Loki season 2, which finished its latest run on Disney+ in November 2023.
Most of these stars, however, are major players in the next slate of movies that Marvel will release. Mackie and Ramirez starred in Captain America: Brave New World, which came out in theaters earlier this year. Pugh, Russell, Stan, Pullman, Harbour, and John-Kamen will all feature prominently in Thunderbolts* (May 2), also hitting theaters this year along with Fantastic Four. From an official standpoint, Pullman’s character is still considered a mystery beyond his nickname “Bob,” but there is mounting evidence that suggests he’s playing comic character Sentry.
Joe and Anthony Russo, who gave Marvel some of their biggest films to date (also in terms of box office returns), are back at the helm of Avengers: Doomsday and the follow up movie, Avengers: Secret Wars. Doomsday will first hit May 1, 2026, and Secret Wars will debut May 7, 2027.
