The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been through lots of ups and downs since Iron Man blasted off in 2008. Arguably, it's been in a bit of a down period of late, with movies like The Marvels underperforming. But Marvel is trying to right the ship, and they just might do it with Avengers: Doomsday, their next big event movie.
The marketing, at least, is already a smash. Marvel is revealing the names of all the cast members in a live stream watched by millions of people. And the cast is huge. Here's everyone who's been unveiled, in the order they were introduced:
- Chris Hemsworth as Thor
- Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier
- Anthony Mackie as Captain America/Sam Wilson
- Vanessa Kirby as the Invisible Woman/Sue Storm
- Paul Rudd as Ant-Man
- Letitia Wright as Black Panther/Shuri
- Wyatt Russell as John Walker/U.S. Agent
- Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Namor/The Submariner
- Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing/Ben Grimm
- Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova/Black Widow
- Kelsey Grammer as Beast
- Lewis Pullman as Bob
- Danny Ramirez as Falcon/Joaquin Torres
- Joseph Quinn as Human Torch/Johnny Storm
- David Harbour as Red Guardian
- Winston Duke as M’Baku
- Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost/Ava Starr
- Tom Hiddleston as Loki
- Patrick Stewart as Professor X/Charles Xavier
- Ian McKellen as Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr
- Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner
- Rebecca Romijn as Mystique
- James Marsden as Cyclops
- Channing Tatum as Gambit/Remy LeBeau
- Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards
- Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom
And if you want to see everyone unveiled in real time, settle in for a five-hour thrill ride:
A few things stand out from that list: first, big names like Chris Evans (the original Captain America), Mark Ruffalo (the Hulk) and Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) are no-shows. We also don't see any of the Guardians of the Galaxy on the list.
We do see Robert Downey Jr. — who kickstarted the MCU as Iron Man many years ago — back in the new role of Doctor Doom. How they'll justify that is anyone's guess, but it'll probably have something to do with the multiverse.
Speaking of the multiverse, that could also explain why so many actors who played members of the X-Men in the old Fox X-Men movies are showing up. They've brought in tons of X-Men veterans, from big ones like Patrick Stewart as Professor X to one-offs like Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler.
Everyone is expecting Marvel to bring the X-Men into the MCU proper at some point, but when happens, we expect to see new actors in these iconic roles. I'm going to guess that they're bringing back the old Fox cast for one last hurrah before moving on.
Avengers: Doomsday is in production now. It lands in theaters on May 1, 2026. In the meanwhile, the next Marvel movie, Thunderbolts*, lands in theaters on May 2. Then The Fantastic Four will come out on July 2. There are Marvel TV shows coming out during this period too, but we think that's enough homework for now.
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