Today, March 26, Marvel hosted a stream on its YouTube channel that spent nearly five and a half hours making a very slow, elaborate show of announcing the cast of Avengers: Doomsday. The 2026 film is the next big crossover in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which we went in knowing would bring Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. back into the fold as Doctor Doom. But today we got confirmation of just which MCU heroes will be facing off against the villain next year.
The stream is lingering on shots of director’s chairs featuring different actors’ names on them. The first one was Thor actor Chris Hemsworth, who was last seen in Thor: Love and Thunder in 2022. After several minutes of hanging out on his chair, the camera panned right to reveal a chair with Vanessa Kirby’s name printed on it. Kirby is playing Sue “Invisible Woman” Storm in Fantastic Four: First Steps, which will premiere on July 25. However, she was already confirmed for the film last year, so that’s not new. Third up is Anthony Mackie, the new Captain America, who just starred in Captain America: Brave New World in February. Fourth revealed is Sebastian Stan, who plays the Winter Soldier, and will star in Thunderbolts* on May 2.
Next is Letitia Wright, who plays Shuri, the new Black Panther who took on the title in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Paul Rudd got a tiny chair because he’s Ant-Man who can become a little guy. The camera panned back up to normal human-sized chairs, revealing Wyatt Russell will return as U.S. Agent after reprising the role in Thunderbolts*. Tenoch Huerta Mejía will return as Namor after playing the sea-faring villain in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Ebon Moss-Bachrach is the second of the Fantastic Four to join the cast after portraying the Thing in First Steps. Simu Liu will reprise his role as Shang-Chi, which I’m sure he’s happy about considering the martial arts movie’s sequel has been pushed down the assembly line after director Destin Daniel Cretton was moved onto the next Spider-Man movie. Florence Pugh will return as Yelena, another one of the Thunderbolts* crew.
Kelsey Grammer is the first X-Men star to join the cast, reprising his role as Hank “Beast” McCoy from the Fox films and The Marvels. Lewis Pullman is an actor we haven’t yet seen in an MCU project, as he will debut as Sentry in Thunderbolts* in May. Danny Ramirez will be appearing as Joaquín Torres aka Falcon, having taken over the mantle from Sam Wilson at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and properly stepped into the role in Captain America: Brave New World. Joseph Quinn, the Stranger Things actor making his Marvel debut as the Human Torch in First Steps, is the third member of that film’s principal cast to get a chair in the lineup. Speaking of Stranger Things, we now also know that David Harbour, who played the Red Guardian in Black Widow, will be reprising the role here.
Winston Duke, who plays M’Baku in the Black Panther movies and also appeared in Infinity War and Endgame, is the next actor confirmed for the Doomsday cast. The next Thunderbolts* actor to join the crew is Hannah John-Kamen, who debuted in Ant-Man and the Wasp as Ghost, but will be taking on a more heroic role this time around. Tom Hiddleston will also be returning in Doomsday as a villain-turned-hero by reprising his role as Loki.
Next we got a series of X-Men reveals. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, who have been playing Professor X and Magneto for 25 years at this point, are also reprising their roles for Avengers: Doomsday. Alan Cumming, who hasn’t played Nightcrawler since 2003’s X-2: X-Men United, is playing the mutant in Doomsday, which is surprising considering he notoriously hated the experience. Rebecca Romijn will be returning as Mystique, as well, so there will be at least three poor actors covered in blue make-up in Doomsday. James Marsden is taking a break between Sonic the Hedgehog movies to return as Cyclops. Channing Tatum will get another chance to make a name for himself as Gambit.
Now that we seem to be done with the X-Men hour, Pedro Pascal will return as Mr. Fantastic after debuting in First Steps. Wrapping up this whole thing is Robert Downey Jr., who actually shows up to sit in his chair. After all that, I guess the biggest announcement was the X-Men cast. Pretty much everything else was expected. There are few surprising omissions, though. No Tom Holland as Spider-Man, Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, or Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange.
I guess if you want to keep something in the conversation all day, one way to do that is to drag an announcement out for hours. Anyway, if you want to begin speculating about whether Doomsday will land among the best or the worst films in the series, you can check out our ranking of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and place your bets.
