In case you somehow missed it, Marvel launched a surprise announcement on its social media channels to confirm the Avengers: Doomsday cast. It all initially started out as a simple live stream titled just "Announcement" alongside a chair with "Chris Hemsworth" written on it...
Our first thoughts were that it might be a Thor 5 announcement, but after 15 minutes, the live stream shot panned to another chair showing "Vanessa Kirby," and it all became a little clearer. Production is now underway on Avengers: Doomsday, with Marvel (rather dramatically) announcing the main cast of the film. And boy there were some big surprises.
For a blow-by-blow recap of every cast reveal, you can check out the archived live blog below.
How long the live stream is going to go on is up in the air right now. It's unusual for Marvel to drop something out of the blue, and all the heads-up we got was on the Twitter/X channel.
Take a seat. https://t.co/rvhBoEMy2nMarch 26, 2025
What do we think is going to happen? Let's take a look at what we know.
The next chair has been revealed and it's... Anthony Mackie! The Captain America star sure makes it seem like we're announcing Avengers cast members as he's been the main shoo-in for the team since it was announced it was new movie were in the works.
In fact, all around the Captain America: Brave New World press tour, Mackie was dropping hints about returning and it was even referenced directly in the film. Speaking to GamesRadar+ earlier this year, he revealed: "I'm really excited about the idea of old meeting new. The OG, original cast members of the MCU, and all the new people coming together to form this massive conglomerate."
"It's just exciting, the idea of seeing the new people, and hopefully the two worlds coming together and creating a super MCU," Mackie added. "It's exciting. You see Deadpool and Wolverine, [and] it's like, 'Are they gonna be in it?' You know what I mean? Like, you see these movies [and you think], 'Who's gonna be in it, who's gonna do it.' I'm excited about that."
A new chair has joined the line up: Sebastian Stan, AKA Bucky Barnes. After his Captain America: Brave New World cameo, we'll next be seeing the star in Thunderbolts*, where he'll be joining a ragtag team of antiheroes also including Yelena Belova, U.S. Agent, Red Guardian, and Taskmaster.
If this is an announcement that he'll be in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday it would make sense as it was confirmed last year at San Diego Comic-Con that the cast of both Thunderbolts* and the upcoming Fantastic Four movie would be appearing in the Avengers movies.
Given that Vanessa Kirby is already in the line-up of chairs, all signs are pointing that way.
Okay, and we've had confirmation, the Marvel Entertainment update is definitely confirming the Avengers: Doomsday cast. This was announced on Twitter from the official Avengers channel with a video of all the names confirmed so far. It also shares that it is "now in production".
Check out the video below.
#AvengersDoomsday pic.twitter.com/nIqdXUisSKMarch 26, 2025
Letitia Wright is the next name announced for the line-up. Accompanied by the Black Panther theme tune, her chair was placed alongside the rest of the announced names. Wright of course plays Shuri in the MCU and in Black Panther 2, she was confirmed as the next Black Panther, following in the footsteps of the late Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa.
Wright spoke last year about the potential of returning for Black Panther 3 when she teased, "There's a lot to, a lot to – a lot coming up." Well, we now know what she means...
Ant-Man is up next, complete with a tiny chair announcement. Well done, Marvel. Well done. Yes, that's right, Paul Rudd is coming back as Scott Lang in Avengers: Doomsday.
Marvel confirmed the news with the Ant-Man score before following the camera across and down to floor for an Ant-Man sized-chair.
Rudd has recently had Avengers on the mind while promoting his latest movie Death of a Unicorn too. He recently revealed that he'd been thinking a whole lot about the Thanus theory. If you don't know what that is, well, lucky you...
We last saw Rudd's superhero in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The third story saw him face-off against Jonathan Major's Kang, who was due to become the big bad of the next Avengers stories. In fact, Avengers 5 was originally called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. However, plans changed after Majors was found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment and dropped from Marvel's upcoming slate.
Another expected name has joined the line-up too as Wyatt Russell is the next chair to be announced. The actor is due to appear in the upcoming Marvel movie Thunderbolts*, which follows a group of antiheroes brought together under the watchful eye of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).
Russell plays John Walker in the MCU, who was originally chosen by the US government to become Steve Rogers's successor as Captain America. However, if you watched The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, you'll know that didn't quite go as planned. At the end of the show he was discharged from duty, which is likely where we'll pick up with him in Thunderbolts*.
In probably the first surprising bit of casting news, Black Panther 2 star Tenoch Huerta Mejia will be appearing in Avengers: Doomsday as well. The Namor star was first introduced in the Black Panther sequel as the villain.
At the end of Wakanda Forever, Namor was defeated by Shuri and her team. Their final confrontation took them to a desert beach where Shuri decided to let him live, should he yield to her. It's implied they have a new alliance, meaning that Namor is seemingly on the side of the good guys now. Have a read of our Black Panther 2 ending explained for more on how it all went down.
However, we'll have to wait and see whether this alliance holds going into Avengers: Doomsday. One thing is for sure – he'll be seeing Shuri again. Just what are the Russos cooking up?
We never thought we'd be watching chairs this intently for over an hour, but the things we do for Marvel, right? While we have a gap between announcements, let's take a look back at the first name revealed for the Avengers: Doomsday cast: Chris Hemsworth.
He's one of the few remaining original Avengers in the MCU and his return is certainly interesting. Not the least because fans have long been hoping that we might be able to finally see a reunion with his lost brother Loki. After the events of Loki season 2 and the huge sacrifice the God of Mischief made, the potential of the pair crossing paths again is certainly intriguing.
However, might Avengers: Doomsday be the end of the road for him? Back in late 2022, after the release of Thor: Love and Thunder, he hinted that his next appearance could be his last. "I feel like we'd probably have to close the book if I ever did it again, you know what I mean?" Hemsworth told Vanity Fair. "I feel like it probably warrants that. I feel like it'd probably be the finale. But that's not based on anything anyone's told me or any sort of plans."
Another Fantastic Four cast member has been confirmed for the upcoming Avengers movie. Ebon Moss-Bachrach will be starring in Doomsday. We're yet to see the actor in action but he will be playing Ben Grimm, or the Thing, in the upcoming portrayal of Marvel's first family.
The Bear actor stars in that with Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, and Joseph Quinn. Kirby has already been announced for the Avengers: Doomsday cast, could Pascal and Quinn be coming soon?
It's long been predicted that Robert Downey Jr. might first make his appearance as Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four or its post-credits scene. This could be the connective tissue needed to link up these Marvel Phase 6 movies. Fantastic Four is out on July 25. All will be revealed then...
Shang-Chi finally returns! Simu Liu has been confirmed as the next name in the Avengers: Doomsday line-up. It's not the long-delayed Shang-Chi 2, but, look, we'll take it.
The actor last appeared in his 2021 debut film and made an impressive introduction into the MCU. Yet, it's been pretty quiet on what's next for him since then so this is very welcome news.
Reports on Avengers: The Kang Dynasty had initially suggested that he would be a major part of that movie. However, when plans were redrawn and focus moved instead to Doctor Doom, it wasn't clear if Shang-Chi would still continue on.
The last update we had from him on his Marvel future was about a month ago when he shared that he was still working hard to try and make Shang-Chi 2 happen, despite Destin Daniel Cretton being brought in to direct Spider-Man 4.
"I don't think anything's been impacted," Liu told ScreenRant. "I think we're all... I speak to Destin often and there's nothing coming out of both of us but excitement to make this film."
At least we know that Liu will be back in the MCU soon so at least some justice is served.
Another Thunderbolts* cast member has been confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday: Florence Pugh will be coming back as Yelena Belova. From what we've seen in the Thunderbolts* trailers so far, she'll be playing a big part of that film and it will likely be where we see her role set up for the Avengers movie.
Pugh joins Wyatt Russell and Sebastian Stan, who have also been confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday too. The casting news isn't unexpected though as it was announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024 that the cast of Thunderbolts* and of Fantastic Four would be appearing in the movie.
However, while unsurprising, Pugh is always a great addition to any cast. In fact, Stan previously said that she's the best part of the upcoming Thunderbolts* movie too. Reacting to this, the actor previously told GamesRadar+, "I was very, very chuffed that he said that about me," she explained.
"Also, it's so kind when people that you look up to and respect and love working with say wonderful things about you because it just makes you fill yourself with confidence and makes you feel that the thing you appreciate is also appreciating you and it's a lovely feeling. And he's been in the MCU for such a long time so to hear that from him is very special."
Okay, now it's getting interesting. Kelsey Grammer is the next name announced for the Avengers: Doomsday cast list. Yes, we're getting full-on X-Men in the MCU after some post-credits teasing and brief mentions so far. Grammer played Beast in the X-Men movies and was brought back in the The Marvels post-credits scene.
In that scene, we saw Monica wake up in a hospital bed after getting stuck on the other side of wherever the hole that Dar-Benn made in space left her. She encountered a few familiar faces there, including her mother and Carol's best friend, Maria (Lashana Lynch), and X-Men's Dr. Hank McCoy.
He told her that "Charles" (who we naturally took to mean Xavier) wanted an update on her and broke the news that she's in a parallel universe. Intriguing indeed. Will we see any more mutants before this casting news is complete? Time will tell...
The next Thunderbolts* cast member has been confirmed: Lewis Pullman. Officially only known as 'Bob' in the MCU so far, it's an open secret he's actually playing Sentry. We've only seen a little of him in the trailers so far but the first look at his suit was leaked by some Marvel merchandise.
It's hard to tell how he's going to factor into Avengers: Doomsday at this point because we don't really know how Thunderbolts* will tackle his rich backstory and history. We're sure he'll be pretty powerful though given that his character literally received the power of a thousand exploding suns after ingesting an experimental serum. There is his dark side (The Void) to deal with though so we'll have to wait and see which side of good and evil he falls on.
We're not surprised, but we're definitely delighted: Danny Ramirez aka Joaquin Torres aka the Falcon to Anthony Mackie's Winter Soldier has been announced as part of the Avengers: Doomsday cast.
Ramirez made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in the Disney Plus series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, before making his first appearance as Sam Wilson's righthand man in Captain America: Brave New World. If the lineage continues, Ramirez is next in line to be the new Captain America after Mackie retires in 10 or so years.
Flame on! Joseph Quinn, who's gearing up to make his MCU debut as Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch, has joined the cast of Avengers: Doomsday.
This is especially exciting, given that Vanessa Kirby and Ebon Moss-Bachrach have already been announced, but not exactly surprising: Given that Doctor Doom is a notorious enemy of the Fantastic Four in the Marvel comics, it makes the most sense for them to be facing off against him in a movie where he's the main villain. It was also reported last summer that Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom would make his first appearance in a post-credits scene at the end of The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Johnny Storm was first played by Chris Evans in the pre-MCU Fantastic Four movie, which he hilariously reprised in Deadpool and Wolverine in a shock cameo that paid homage to the all-but-forgotten film.
Quinn is perhaps best known as Eddie Munsen from Stranger Things season 4, which launched him into superstardom.
Looks like another member of the Thunderbolts is joining us on this, should we say, marvelous journey. David Harbour is set to reprise his role as Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian in Avengers: Doomsday.
Harbour made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in the standalone movie Black Widow, which explores the heartbreaking origin stories of both Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belov - two sisters who are separated as children and forced to become widows, aka lethal super-soldiers. Alexei is the father of both Natasha and Yelena.
Yelena and Alexei will be teaming up for Thunderbolts*, which sees Marvel's most beloved antiheroes become an unlikely Avengers-esque super-group.
M'Baku is back! Winston Duke, who appeared in both Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is set to star in Avengers: Doomsday.
As it stands, M'Baku is the current King of Wakanda and leader of the Jabari, the group of Wakandans who shun the use of vibranium. With Shuri, Namor, and M'Baku all returning, I'd say we're in pretty good hands. Though some fans are holding out hope for a third Black Panther movie, another Avengers team-up (hello, Infinity War!) is good enough for me.
Hannah John-Kamen, who can be seen next in Thunderbolts*, is set to star in Avengers: Doomsday.
John-Kamen plays Ava Starr aka Ghost, who has the ability to phase through objects. She made her first appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp, where she serves as the main antagonist and punches Wasp in the face one or a dozen times. Though she serves as an antagonist, she's definitely more of anti-hero - and her recruitment to the Thunderbolts by way of Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine certainly makes sense. It was speculated that she died after the events of Ant-Man and the Wasp, especially after Bill Foster says she has weeks to live, but it's possible that Thunderbolts* will explain where's she been all this time.
Can you hear us screaming from here? Tom Hiddleston is returning as Loki, everyone's favorite God of Mischief - and we've never been more excited.
When we last left Loki, he had destroyed the Temporal Loom and sacrificed himself to become the God of Stories - meaning he's just been kind of stuck there holding the fabric of the universe together. We're elated to know that his story doesn't just end there, and that he'll be reunited with his brother Thor and the rest of the Avengers (even after Thanos killed the other Loki in Infinity War and all that).
The screaming hasn't stopped. Sir Patrick Stewart is back in action as Professor Charles Xavier - and this means Kevin Feige was right when he said Marvel Phase 6 would usher in a new era chock-full of mutants.
Stewart played Professor X in the pre-MCU X-Men movies, and reprised the role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He'll likely play a different variant in Doomsday, as all of the X-Men who have appeared in the MCU thus far are all from different universes. The X-Men finally appearing in and being canon to the MCU makes my heart soar - as does the thought of them teaming up with fellow super-groups the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. All is right in the world.
All is right in the world. After the glorious and triumphant return of Sir Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier, Sir Ian McKellen is set to reprise his role as none other than Magneto from the pre-MCU X-Men franchise.
You might remember that Michael Fassbender, who played a younger version of the supervillain in X-Men: First Class, filmed a cameo scene for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that was ultimately cut from the film. This means that Avengers: Doomsday marks McKellen's first-ever MCU appearance, and first appearance as the MCU's first and official Magneto. This is exciting stuff. With how well Stewart's Xavier and McKellen's Magneto worked together in the Fox franchise, it's hard to imagine anyone else in the roles. They play a perfect, adversarial pair.
Whoa. Alan Cumming is set to star in Avengers: Doomsday, and while many of you might know him as Floop from Spy Kids - he very much starred in the pre-MCU X-Men movies as none other than Nightcrawler. And given that they just announced Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier and Ian McKellen as Magneto back-to-back, there's no one else that Cumming could be portraying.
Deadpool and Wolverine brought the formally Fox-owned Marvel characters back, killed one, and left the fates of the others unknown. Will more Fox-owned pre-MCU characters be announced next? And will they become canon to the MCU? Or are we entering another wild multiverse situation? Only time will tell.
Whoa, yet again. Rebecca Romijn is set to star in Avengers: Doomsday...as yet another member of the formally Fox-owned pre-MCU X-Men.
Romijn played everyone's favorite all-blue shapeshifter Mystique in the pre-MCU franchise (though Jennifer Lawrence played a younger version of the character in X-Men: First Class). With Patrick Stewart's Xavier, Ian McKellen's Magneto, Alan Cumming's Nightcrawler, and now Romijn's Mystique...we're likely getting a full early-2000s X-Men reunion here. And given what happened to the Fox-owned Marvel characters in Deadpool and Wolverine, I don't exactly have the best feeling about this. They'll either be a multiversal or main fixture in the MCU, or they'll be killed off. We're hoping for the former rather than the latter.
Keeping in with our Fox-owned X-Men rollout, we've got James Marsden likely returning as none other than Scott Summers aka Cyclops. Again, it's Marvel, and they could be tricking us into thinking that Patrick Stewart and co. are returning as their original X-Men characters - as they're only announcing actor names, not character names - while they're really just joining as entirely different characters - but who knows.
Marsden previously praised Hugh Jackman's return as Wolverine, adding that he "knows so little" about the MCU but would be open to playing Cyclops once more.
Are Channing Tatum's Gambit dreams coming true...again? It sure looks that way. You might remember that Tatum was set to star in a standalone, live-action non-MCU Gambit movie back in 2014, which was slated for a 2016 release - but sadly never materialized. Luckily, Tatum got to play his dream role in Deadpool and Wolverine - and he did so in the silliest, campiest way possible (which I personally loved so much).
Because Fox was set to produce the standalone Gambit film, this does technically make him one of the formally Fox-owned X-Men (whose fate I am worried about given what happened at the end of Deadpool and Wolverine to the other Fox characters). However, this might very well mean that Gambit made it out alive after all (like we saw in that cut post-credits scene) and that Blade and Elektra made it out as well. We'll keep our eyes peeled for the rest of the announcements.
A break in the X-Men actor rollout: Pedro Pascal is, unsurprisingly joining the cast of Avengers: Doomsday. The beloved actor is set to make his MCU debut as Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
As we mentioned earlier, Doctor Doom is a notorious adversary of the Fantastic Four, so it only makes sense for the team to face off against him in Doomsday. Now that Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Pascal have all been announced - we can expect some serious butt-kicking action. Pascal was surprise-announced as Reed Richards after many speculated that John Krasinski would reprise his role as a Reed Richards variant in Doctor Doom in the Multiverse of Madness. Though Pascal likely won't have a day off until 2045 what with The Last of Us and The Mandalorian, we couldn't be more stoked for him.
Last, but certainly not least, is Doctor Doom himself: Mr. Robert Downey Jr. In what was quite the dramatic lead-up, the final portion of Marvel's Avengers: Doomsday cast announcement livestream saw Downey walk into the room, past all of the actors' chairs, and take a seat in his own. He then turned to the camera and whispered, "Shhh," before the livestream cut to a screen that said, "Avengers: Doomsday, now in production."
After the death of Iron Man, one could assume Downey would be finished with the MCU. When Avengers: Doomsday was announced during San Diego Comic-Con 2024, he shocked the world by coming out on stage in a Doctor Doom mask - and I wouldn't be lying if I didn't scream at my computer along with the rest of the SDCC audience.
We're surprised at who wasn't announced for Doomsday (and were half-hoping for the Young Avengers to make their first team debut), but we're sure there's more to come - and we're sure there's a plethora of characters they're saving for Avengers: Secret Wars.
