Marvel's ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Casting-Announcement Livestream: All the Reveals

At 11:01 Eastern this morning, Marvel Studios started a livestream that gradually revealed the twenty-seven primary cast members of the forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday, which is now in officially in production ahead of its May 1, 2026 release date. And when we say “gradually,” we mean very, very gradually. The livestream consisted of a single shot of a long row of directors' chairs, each one stenciled with an actor's name. Roughly every thirteen minutes or so, the camera would pan slightly to the right, revealing a new name on a new chair. Then, for thirteen minutes, the camera would just hang out, leaving us to stare at that chair. This stream lasted five hours, twenty-eight minutes, and twenty-two seconds.

And we watched the whole thing.

Not since HBO decided to make fans literally watch a block of ice melt for a Game of Thrones trailer have we seen such an absurdly drawn-out marketing stunt. This could have been an email, Kevin Feige! But alas, it worked, as we’re here writing about it, and what it means for the next massive installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Turns out that waiting was kind of worth it, as the reveals turned from predictable (Chris Hemsworth will return as Thor? You don't say!) to authentically shocking (what do you mean Ian McKellen and James Marsden are returning in their original X-Men roles?!)

If you’ve been reading the tea leaves, this casting reveal puts the plot of Avengers: Doomsday into sharper focus. But if you need a hand making sense of what all this means, we’re here to help. As such, we’ve grouped each cast member with their respective teammates to provide a little bit of context as to where we last saw them and what they might be up to next as Doomsday kicks off.

Where We Last Saw Them: At the end of Captain America: Brave New World, when Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) tells Joaquin Torres (aka the Falcon, played by Danny Ramirez) that his new mission is to rebuild the Avengers. We now have an idea of what this team will look like as Thor (Hemsworth), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), and Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) will apparently be joining Falcon's new squad. Thor is taking care of his newly adopted child out in space. Shang-Chi was singing karaoke after gaining control of the ancient, mystical, and mysterious Ten Rings. And Ant-Man was concerned about the threat of Kang.

What They Might Be Up To: We have a little more speculation on that below, but there are some notable absences here, including Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Rhodey/War Machine (Don Cheadle) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland). The latter is a noticeable exclusion, but given Holland’s schedule —he’s shooting Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey as we speak—it makes sense he’s not able to join the production as it currently stands. But given that character’s importance to Infinity War and Endgame, it’s a surprising omission nonetheless for this first major Avengers film.

Where We Last Saw Them: We haven’t yet! Thunderbolts* doesn’t hit theaters until early May, but the announcement confirms that the team, including Bob, will have a critical role moving forward.

What They Might Be Up To: Might the long-rumored asterisk attached to the title confirm the team as a government-sanctioned New Avengers team? Perhaps the early stages of Doomsday will see the two squads at odds with one another before joining forces.

Where We Last Saw Them: Much like Team Thunderbolts*, we haven’t yet. But given that this film now hinges on the FF's archnemesis Dr. Doom (Robert Downey Jr.), it's hard to imagine Marvel’s first family won't be a critical part of the tale.

What They Might Be Up To: Considering Fantastic Four (due out in July) looks to take place in an alternate-universe 1960s where the team's main foe will be Galactus, Doomsday will (hopefully) lean on the quartet to do the heavy lifting of introducing Doom. In the teaser video, it feels notable that Pascal’s chair was revealed right before Downey’s, perhaps teasing how important the two will be to one another.

The biggest question we have related to the Four is whether or not they’ll cross paths with the Avengers in any capacity in this movie, or if Marvel will save that encounter for Secret Wars.

Where We Last Saw Them: Wakanda Forever ended with Shuri (Wright) as the new Black Panther, with M’Baku (Duke) on the throne, and Namor (Mejia) in an alliance with Wakanda.

What They Might Be Up To: It’s more than likely Shuri and Namor will end up joining Sam and the rest of the Avengers, but it would be a shame to deprive comic book fans of a possible Sue Storm/Namor interaction, given that he’s a canonical simp for her. Plus, Wakanda lends itself to a bit of palace intrigue, and having a performer as magnetic as Duke around, even if it’s for just one scene or two, is a no-brainer.

Where We Last Saw Him: We haven’t yet, but it’s a safe bet Doom will have an appearance in a post-credits stinger for Fantastic Four.

What They Might Be Up To: Based on the inclusion of Loki—more on that in a second—the likely plot for Doom doesn’t feel that far afield from our initial prediction for Kang’s master plan. With the rise of incursions, Doom likely believes himself to be the only one capable of saving the multiverse, and thus is seeking out Loki to take control of the strands of time and bend them to his will.

Where We Last Saw Him: At the end of Loki’s second season, when the former god of mischief took control of managing the multiversal timestreams at the TVA, weaving them together in the form of a cosmic Yggdrasil — that’s the tree of life, if you’re rusty on your Norse mythology.

What They Might Be Up To: Loki’s in danger, girl. As the one literally holding the multiverse together, he’s likely Doom’s prime target. We just hope Thor gets a moment to see the God his brother has become and that he sticks around longer in Doomsday than he did in Infinity War. Either way, it’s nice to see Hiddleston return after he seemed very convinced his time in the MCU was over and done.

Where We Last Saw Them: At the end of The Marvels, Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris, absent from this casting announcement) fell through a wormhole and into another universe that was presumed to be the world inhabited by the Fox Studios X-Men characters. While the narrative of Deadpool and Wolverine would seemingly complicate that, Doomsday presupposes that it’s maybe not the case. While these might not be the exact same version of the X-Men we saw in the Fox Universe, Marvel certainly plans to leverage them to . . .

What They Might Be Up To: . . . set up a version of Avengers vs X-Men. While the original version of the crossover event (scripted by writers Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman, and Matt Fraction, with art by John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel, and Adam Kubert) saw the two teams clashing over who should control the powers of the mystical Phoenix Force, Doomsday will likely leverage those pesky and long-spoken-about incursions to pit the Avengers against the X-Men as each team battles to save their world while Doom jockeys for control in the background. Bringing back the actors who played the Marvel mutants in the early-2000s film series is absolutely a nostalgia play, but one that’s likely to have real stakes in it due to decades of emotional audience attachment.

While the inclusion of all the former X-Men is quite a shock, the biggest surprise—for our money anyhow—is Tatum, whose portrayal of Gambit took forever to come to life; after an appearance in Deadpool and Wolverine that felt like a one-off, the idea that he's apparently going to join a real X-Men team in the MCU was a twist worth watching six hours of directors-chair footage for. Sacre bleu, indeed.