Summary
Marvel Studios brought the internet to a crawl earlier this week when theyspent multiple hours teasing fans with a snail-paced live streamthat revealed the names of actors set to appear in 2026’sAvengers: Doomsday. Of course, this strategy worked as fans and detractors alike speculated in real time over which actor’s name would appear next. “Maybe it’ll be Chris Evans or Elizabeth Olsen!” This is what Marvel Studios has been reduced to in 2025: slow-dripping famous actors' names to get people excited about the nextAvengersmovie.
It’s no great shock thatMarvelis pulling out all the stops forAvengers: Doomsday. It’s the firstAvengersproduct since 2019’sEndgame, and the House of Ideas is dying to get this one right. Robert Downey Jr. is returning (in an admittedly bizarre and controversial move) to playVictor Von Doom, beloved MCU directors the Russo Brothers are on board (afterThe Electric Statecrashed and burned earlier this year), and Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige is seemingly going guns blazing withDoomsday. But is a film jam-packed full of nostalgic cameos really what the Marvel fandom wants?
The Post-EndgameYears Have Not Been Kind To Marvel Studios
The Sheen Has Officially Worn Off
For more than a decade,Marvel Studioswas riding the highest of highs. From 2008’sIron Manup through 2019’s triple punch ofCaptain Marvel,Avengers: Endgame, andSpider-Man: Far From Home, it seemed the superheroics would never end. Marvel was a box office juggernaut that simply couldn’t be stopped. Until, well, it was.
Marvel Studios began diluting its own product by releasing several original series onDisney+each year while struggling to find its footing theatrically without Iron Man and Captain America to hold everything together post-Endgame. Chadwick Boseman—Black Panther and assumed heir to the throne of the Marvel empire—unexpectedly died from colon cancer in 2020. Jonathan Majors—Kang the Conqueror and the Thanos equivalent for Marvel’s post-Endgamereality—was dropped from any MCU involvementfollowing personal controversy in 2023.
Pair critical duds likeEternalsandAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniawith box office flops likeThe Marvels,and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. With overall quality dipping and general interest waning, Marvel Studios decided to go all out forAvengers: Doomsday(itselfretooled fromAvengers: The Kang Dynastyafter Majors' departure from the franchise). Alas, going all out doesn’t mean it’s all going to work out.
Will A Glut Of Familiar Faces Really Bring Marvel Back To The Top?
DC Studios Is Doing The Exact Opposite At The Moment
During the live stream, Marvel Studios revealed that Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Kelsey Grammer, Rebecca Romijn, and James Marsden would be reprising their respective mutant roles from the originalX-Menline of films. This was in addition to the extensive list of other MCU actors one would expect to see in a massive crossover movie like this. Each member of the Fantastic Four is listed, numerous actors set to star inThunderbolts*are as well, and various other MCU stars (like Simu Liu, Anthony Mackie, and Letitia Wright) had their names paraded out for the masses.
All in all, more than twenty names were listed during the hours-long live stream, and there are sure to be more. After all, numerous beloved MCU stars were not included in the bombastic round-up.Tom Holland’s Spider-Man? Nope. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange? No, ma’am. Any member of the Guardians of the Galaxy? Not a one. Hulk, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch… the list of popular Marvel characters missing is almost as long as the ones they’ve included.
Some of these faces (if not all of them) are sure to show up, even if it is only for a few scant seconds of screen time. Which bodes the question:How are the Russo Brothers going to make a cohesive storyline out of this many characters? Are they even going to try?
BlameDeadpool & Wolverine,No Way Home, AndEndgameItself For This Mess
As The Old Saying Goes, Money Talks
In all honesty, the current cast list forAvengers: Doomsdayreads a lot like the cast list forAvengers: Endgame. So why can’tDoomsdaywork as well asEndgamedid? Well, the films leading up toEndgamehad a cohesive narrative throughline that could be followed nearly from film to film.This is no longer the case with the MCU at large. How many viewers out there have actually kept up with every single Marvel project over the past five years? How many of them sat down and watchedAgatha All Along,Echo,She-Hulk: Attorney At Law,Captain America: Brave New World,Eternals,What If…?, andThe Marvels? It’s hard to tell.
Marvel clearly wantsDoomsdayto be anEndgame-level cultural event. To do this, they are taking a page out of the playbooks of their two most recent gargantuan successes:Spider-Man: No Way HomeandDeadpool & Wolverine. Both of these films featured multiversal shenanigans to bring back superheroes from years past to play with nostalgia and tug on the heartstrings. Neither film was the best in their respective trilogy, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a Marvel fan who didn’t revel in seeing three Spider-Men show up onscreen together or enjoy watching Wolverine and X-23 reunite. It is much easier to play on emotion with stunt casting than it is to tell an engaging story.
If Marvel is going to justify spending the big bucks to bring the Russos and RDJ back into the fold,they’re going to have to make boatloads of it at the worldwide box office. They’re betting that a whole heaping helping of famous names will be the thing to put butts in seats. Time will tell if it is the right play.
