Summary
Production onAvengers: Doomsdayis finally in full swing, and the size of the film’s already confirmed massive cast has ushered in the return of an Infinity Saga tradition for keeping the who’s who of the Marvel Cinematic Universe properly organized.
Avengers: Doomsdayis set to be the MCU’s next big entry, marking the firstAvengersproject since the Infinity Saga came to a close with the climacticAvengers: Endgame.The franchise has seen a downturn since that high point in 2019, motivating the brass at Marvel Studios to bring the Russo brothers back into the fold. The return of the Russos, who were the brains behindEndgameand the precedingAvengers: Infinity War,immediately piques fan interest in the project, which many saw as rushed and expected to fall short. Adding to the building anticipation,Marvel Studios confirmed 27 characters forAvengers: Doomsdayin a recent livestream-style reveal, which saw the names of the actors returning for the project appear on the backs of production set chairs.
Despite the expansive cast reveal, fans expect thateven more characters will boardAvengers: Doomsdayregardless of whether or not they got a chair. That’s a lot of personnel to keep track of for even the most attentive veteran directors, and the Russo brothers are no exception. In a recent interview withThe Hollywood Reporter, the duo was asked if they were keeping track of the massive cast of the film with custom baseball cards, a tactic some hardcore fans will remember from the production of previous Russo-ledAvengersfilms. “Yes, we continue to use the baseball cards,” Anthony Russo confirmed, with Joe following up by saying, “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.” As Joe confirmed here, the custom cards, which feature the MCU’s actors on the front and contract details on the flip side, are pretty much the only way the creatives crafting the project can keep up.
The return of the card strategy is certainly going to be essential for the upcoming films, which are well on track to feature more than 30 high-profile Marvel characters in addition to what is sure to be a proportionally large supporting cast and crew. Part of the plan for the Russos’ return was torestore a central narrative to the MCU with theseAvengersfilms, which means that the duo pretty much has to bring in all the disparate players from the last few years and work all those factions and standalones into a single, overarching plot. This has already been confirmed to include most of theThunderbolts*(spoiling potential character deaths in the process), as well as Marvel’s most important mutants and the few Avengers left from the first saga. In addition to those, there’s the potential addition of Spider-Man characters from the upcoming fourth film, members of the Young Avengers that Kamala Khan seems to be assembling off-screen, the magical elements introduced inAgatha All Along, and even the street-level characters ofDaredevil: Born Again.
It’s been made clear by the duo themselves thatthe Russos want to outdo their previousAvengersmovieswithDoomsdayandSecret Wars,and that means elevating the ensemble cast in the same way that the originalAvengerswere. Without the advantage of the same sort of decade-long build thatInfinity Warbenefited from,Doomsdayis going to have to go above and beyond to make these characters matterandintroduce multiple key players from the X-Men. Fans will have to wait and see how this goes for the franchise when the upcomingAvengersfilms finally hit theaters. On the other side, Marvel might want to look into making the front end of those cards available for fans as merch.
Avengers: Doomsdayhit theaters on May 18, 2025, whileAvengers: Secret Warswill be released on May 09, 2025.
