CB Panel: What’s Your Biggest Avengers: Doomsday Surprise Casting?

Who are you most excited to see return for Avengers: Doomsday?

March 26, 2025, 8:05pm

Welcome to a new discussion with the ComicBook Panel! Make sure to post your own comments about Avengers: Doomsday down below!

Videos by ComicBook.com

Today, Marvel held a surprise livestream (slowly) revealing 27 cast members joining the highly-anticipated Avengers: Doomsday, which releases on May 1st, 2026. Being the next big Avengers film, there are plenty of familiar names on chairs that we expected, like Anthony Mackie’s Captain America, Letitia Wright’s Black Panther, Pedro Pascal’s Mister Fantastic, and, of course, Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. as the villainous Doctor Doom. However, today’s stream revealed a few surprises, including some X-Men and returning characters fans have been waiting to see for a while.

As mentioned before, the reveal of several X-Men actors took the reveal by Storm (though Halle Berry was not confirmed). Original X-Men actors Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Kelsey Grammer, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, and Alan Cumming all had chairs with their names on it, confirming their appearance in the 2026 superhero flick as Professor X, Magneto, Beast, Mystique, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler, respectively. While they haven’t been in this X-Men (though they were in X-Men ‘97), Gambit is in the cards for the casting sheet, with Channing Tatum donning the southern magician’s robes after his scene-stealing role in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine.

In terms of returning characters, there are a few that we haven’t seen for quite a bit. For example, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki are all in attendance, who have been seldom shown lately. Surprisingly, Tenoch Huerta Mieja will come back as Namor, who first appeared in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which comic book fans will enjoy as Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm is there.

However, a few interesting additions were six of the main actors from the upcoming Thunderbolts*: Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier, Florence Pugh’s Yelena, Wyatt Russell’s US Agent, David Harbour’s Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost, and Lewis Pullman’s Bob (likely Sentry). The movie still has yet to come out, as it releases on May 2nd, but may have spoiled who survives at the end. It doesn’t help that neither Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina and Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster were not included in today’s cast lineup.

What character are you excited to see back for Avengers: Doomsday? Do you think there are more cast members yet to be added? Has today’s stream made you more excited to see what the Russo Brothers are cooking up for Avengers: Doomsday? Let us know in the comments below!

Check out some of our coverage on the casting of Avengers: Doomsday, as well as the movie itself, below!