Robert Downey Jr. returns to the MCU with other confirmed actors including stars Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston, ‘X-Men’ stars like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, and a good chunk from the studio’s ‘Thunderbolts.’Six years after Avengers: Endgame became one of the biggest movies of all time, the Avengers are finally assembling again.During a nearly five-and-a-half hour livestream, Marvel Studios unveiled its cast for Avengers: Doomsday, revealing a mix of Marvel Cinematic Universe mainstays as well as actors from 20th Century Fox’s now-defunct X-Men universe and upcoming stars of Fantastic Four: First Steps. Notable names missing from the roll call included Tom Holland (Spider-Man) and Chris Evans (Captain America), the latter of whom is expected to appear at least one of the two-part movies.he cast announced included Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Anthony Mackie (Captain America), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Letitia Wright (Black Panther), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Danny Ramirez (The Falcon) and Winston Duke (M’Baku).

The cast of Marvel’s upcoming May release anti-hero team movie Thunderbolts* was also represented, with Sebastian Stan (The Winter Soldier), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), Wyatt Russell (U.S. Agent), David Harbour (Red Guardian), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), and Lewis Pullman (a character at this time simply known as Bob) also getting chairs in the soundstage, as the live-stream showed.The cast reveal also included X-Men actors Patrick Stewart (Prof. X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), James Marsden (Cyclops) and Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), who kicked off the modern era of superhero movies with 2000’s X-Men, the film Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige cut his teeth on as an assistant.

They will be joined by X2: X-Men United‘s Alan Cuming (Nightcrawler) and Kelsey Grammer (Beast), who starred in X-Men: The Last Stand for 20th Century Fox and had a cameo in The Marvels. Channing Tatum, who once was attached to a Gambit movie that never happened, will also appear in Doomsday after making his debut in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Members of the Fantastic Four are also in the cast, including Pedro Pascal (Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (The Invisible Woman), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Thing) and Joseph Quinn (The Human Torch).

Tenoch Huerta Mejía, who played Namor in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, was the first true surprise of the casting event. There were questions over his return to Marvel after he was accused of sexual misconduct in June 2023, claims he denied as “false and completely unsubstantiated.” He dropped out of a Netflix movie amid the media storm, and later appeared as a guest at Marvel’s Echo premiere event, suggesting he and the studio were on good terms.Sources say that even with 26 actors announced, Marvel wasn’t done with revealing the entire cast, although when and how another unveiling will occur was unclear.

The event was simple. It included a shot of a director’s chair with a star’s name on the back. Every twelve minutes or so, music from the next actor’s movie would play, and the camera would shift to a new chair and name. It ended with the swell of a new take on composer Alan Silvestri’s Avengers theme, revealing Robert Downey Jr. (Doctor Doom) in a suit and tie, giving a “shhh” to the camera.

Marvel first announced Avengers: Doomsday to fanfare at San Diego Comic-Con in July, with the surprise reveal that Downey would be returning to the MCU after retiring the role of Iron Man with Endgame. The move reunited Downey, Marvel’s most bankable star, with the Russo Bros., Marvel’s most bankable directors, who likewise had departed the MCU after Endgame.Marvel boss Feige first pitched Downey on the idea of returning as Doom, while Downey himself convinced the Russo Bros. to return to the fold after spending the last half decade working in the world of streaming movies. The pair opted to return after their frequent screenwriter collaborator Stephen McFeely pitched them his take.

Doomsday has a release date of May 1, 2026, while follow-up Avengers: Secret Wars is on the calendar for May 7, 2027.

The Russos recently told The Hollywood Reporter about the challenge of casting the movies and keeping the characters straight, confirming that they use baseball cards featuring every Marvel actor and character. This is also something they did while working on Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.“Now they have magnets on them so we can put ‘em on a board and look at ‘em. It’s the only way to keep track of the amount of characters that we’re working with,” said Joe Russo. Added Anthony Russo: “And as far as how do we look at who’s in the movies, it’s just a long creative process of exploring where we want to take the story. What is the most surprising and exciting area for us to push into, and which characters help us in that effort?”