Summary

Millions of people watcheda seemingly neverending live streamthatMarvel Studiosput out, slowly listing various names of actors set to appear in 2026’sAvengers: Doomsday. A bunch of the usual suspects were listed (Anthony Mackie’s Captain America, Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man, and Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier, to name a few) along with some genuinely surprising names like Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Namor and Channing Tatum as Gambit.

However, the most surprising collection of names had to be the glut of originalX-Mentrilogy cast members who are coming out of the woodwork for the latestAvengersromp. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, and Kelsey Grammer have all been confirmed to reprise their roles from 20th Century Fox’s originalX-Menfranchise of films. While some fans might be excited to see these faces suit up again in the MCU, it certainly doesn’t bode well for the cinematic future of everyone’s favorite mutant team.

Marvel Is Bringing Several Older X-Men Back Into The Fold

How Much Nostalgia-Bait Can One Fanbase Handle?

WhenDisneybought 20th Century Fox back in 2019, they gained the film rights to the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and Deadpool, among others. Deadpool finally came to the MCU in last year’s uber-successfulDeadpool & Wolverine,and Marvel’s first family is set to join him in this year’sTheFantastic Four: First Steps. It hasn’t been so simple a transition for Marvel’s merry band of mutants.

Patrick Stewart cameoed inDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessas a version of Charles Xavier,Black Panther: Wakanda Forevertechnically set up Namor as a mutant (though you could be forgiven for forgetting this), andMs. Marvelset up Kamala Khan as a mutant before the comic books did the same (she used to identify with the Inhumans, but their on the outs popularity-wise these days). Kelsey Grammer’s Beast appeared at the very end ofThe Marvels,whileDeadpool & Wolverinewas filled to the brim with mutants like Cassandra Nova, Gambit, X-23, and more, but none of these are mutants of the MCU’s main universe, so why would the fanbase get all hyped up about them?

WithAvengers: Doomsday, it seems Marvel Studios is simply doubling down on bringing mutants from years past to the MCU, following in the wake of Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds. Why bother setting up a whole new team of mutants when people will simply accept the one who debuted 25 years ago instead? It’s so much simpler than doing actual legwork.

X-Men ‘97 Proves That Marvel Studios Can Get The Mutants Right

But, You Know, They’d Have To Actually Try…

What makes this all so aggravating is thatX-Men ‘97exists. Yeah, it piggybacks off of the 1990sX-Menanimated series, but that doesn’t mean it’s scant on bringing new ideas to the table while adapting classic mutant storylines from the comics. Fans got to see Gambit charge Wolverine’s claws, for goodness’ sake. How cool is that? Marvel Animation proved you can have your cake and eat it too by playing to nostalgia and upending the status quo at the same time.

DidX-Men ‘97burn through classic storylines such as “Inferno” and “Fatal Attractions” a little too quickly? Sure, but at least it did a solid enough job of adapting those storylines into its own overarching tale.Nightcrawlerdidn’t just show up because it would be cool to see Nightcrawler… he actually had things to do. We got to see him fight with swords!

What Does All This Mean For The Next Class Of Marvel Mutants?

Or Are We Just Never Going To Get A Proper X-Men Reboot?

For those keeping track at home, we’ve now had four different sending-off parties for variousX-MenandX-Menadjacent characters over the years.X-Men: Days of Future Pastserved as a goodbye to the cast of the originalX-Menmovies and reset the timeline in the process. Then, withLogan, the tandem of Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart got a separate sendoff movie (which made sense as they were the leads of the franchise up to that point). In 2019,Dark Phoenixended the second phase of Fox’sX-Menfilms with a massive dud. Lastly, 2024’sDeadpool & Wolverineprovided closure to numerous Fox-based Marvel characters, complete with a teary-eyed montage over the end credits.

Avengers: Doomsday—despite being an Avengers moviecentered around a Fantastic Four villain—is, against all odds, shaping up to be yet another farewell for the classic X-Men actors. Or is it? Because Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and Dafne Keen’s X-23 are all jumping around in the MCU now. Channing Tatum’s Gambit and Kelsey Grammer’s Beast are coming back after small cameos in other MCU projects. Who’s to say a bunch of these X-Men and others who have yet to be announced aren’t going to be the main mutant team going forward?

What does that mean for mutants like Namor andMs. Marvel? Well, Namor is an anti-hero/villain who is only super popular with the most diehard of Marvel nerds. And Ms. Marvel is rumored to be joining the Champions/Young Avengers project that Marvel has been kicking around for years now. Casting gossip for a younger generation of X-Men has been ramping up for a while, but there is nothing set in stone about a new X-Men flick coming any time soon.

So, what isMarvel Studiosdoing with the X-Men? We don’t have much of an idea at this point and if we’re being honest, it doesn’t seem like they have much of one either.