It’s the 5 hour and 30 minutes cast announcement which confused and excited fans in equal measure.
Instead of bringing the cast of the next Avengers film onto a stage one by one, Marvel opted for a live social media stunt during which the cast was announced via the performers’ on-set chairs. Every 15 minutes, the camera panned to a new chair, revealing a new name.
Among those confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday – out on 1 May 2026, the first part of a diptych with Avengers: Secret Wars – were franchise veterans like Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi and Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova. And the list continues – scroll down for the full roll call.
Chris Hemsworth, Vanessa Kirby, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan – AP Photo
The biggest news was that stars from 20th Century Fox / Marvel’s X-Men saga are coming back, with Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler), Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), James Marsden (Cyclops) and Kelsey Grammer (Beast) all signing up for this new epic. As of that wasn’t enough on the mutant front, Channing Tatum – who we last saw as Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine – was also there. Well, his chair was.
Stewart, 84, played Professor X in the Fox’s early 2000s X-Men films and had a cameo in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, while 85-year-old Ian McKellen, played his arch-nemesis Magneto. Both actors were ‘replaced’ by younger actors in the 2010s X-Men series reboot, and their inclusion has caused serious fan speculation about the direction Avengers: Doomsday. The main theory is that it sets up an Avengers vs X-Men showdown in the multiverse, which will see various hero factions facing off in order to try to save their respective worlds.
The whole exhausting chair watch – which recalled the misguided stunt HBO orchestrated when they invited fans to watch a live broadcast of a block of ice melting all to reveal the start date of the seventh season of the show – ended with Robert Downey Jr. Sitting on his chair, as the former Iron Man actor was announced as playing Doctor Doom last year. He will be the main threat in both Doomsday and Secret Wars, two of the tentpoles of Marvel’s upcoming Phase 6 of its Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Fans were taken by surprise by this unconventional casting announcement, with many expressing excitement, boredom and confusion. Indeed, some noted that the reveals were spoiling the upcoming Thunderbolts* before its release, given that we now know which characters will survive.
“Is there really any reason to watch Thunderbolts at this point?!?!” posted one fan on X, while another wrote: “Exciting but you’re spoiling Thunderbolts!!”
Other fans cried foul when seeing that some of the biggest and most anticipated names were not among the names announced.
There was no mention of Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange), Brie Larson (Captain Marvel), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk) or even Tom Holland (Spider-Man).
However, Marvel and Disney could be sitting on them for now, planning another cast reveal closer to release date, or even saving them for Secret Wars.
Robert Downey Jr. revealed as Doctor Doom last year – Getty Images
Avengers: Doomsday is set for release in May 2026 and will be the first team-up movie since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, which became one of the highest grossing films of all time.
A lot is riding on it, as Marvel has been struggling to recover its cultural buzz and box office mojo ever since Endgame. There have been the never-ending series which revealed a quantity over quality approach, a series of flops including Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels and the most recent outing, Captain America: Brave New World, as well as the Kang debacle which sent Marvel back to the drawing board.
The return of the Russo Brothers to direct both Doomsday and Secret Wars (having previously helmed well received MCU projects like Captain America: Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War and both Infinity War and Endgame), as well as Robert Downey Jr.’s mask swap, have been seen as signs pointing to a studio running out of ideas and desperate to get back to their zenith.
Time will tell if they pull it off.
The full casting announcement included:
- Vanessa Kirby (Invisible Woman)
- Anthony Mackie (Captain America)
- Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes)
- Letitia Wright (Black Panther)
- Wyatt Russell (John Walker)
- Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Namor)
- Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Thing)
- Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova)
- Joseph Quinn (Human Torch)
- David Harbour (Red Guardian)
- Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost)
- Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier)
- Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler)
- Rebecca Romijn (Mystique)
- Pedro Pascal (Mister Fantastic)
- Robert Downey Jr. (Doctor Doom)
Marvel’s Thunderbolts* hits cinemas on 2 May; Phase 6 kicks off this year with The Fantastic Four: First Steps on 25 July. Doomsday is due out on 1 May 2026 and Secret Wars on 7 May 2027.
