Avengers: Doomsday Star May Have Spoiled Fantastic Four vs. X-Men Fight

Avengers: Doomsday has an X factor. Ever since Marvel Studios announced the star-studded ensemble during a nearly six-hour livestream in March — a cast of 27 names that, so far, includes everyone from Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom and Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards to the New Avengers and the original X-Men — fans have suspected that the next Avengers movie is a version of Avengers vs. X-Men, a blockbuster storyline that pit Earth’s mightiest heroes against Earth’s mightiest mutants.

But there may be another adaptation in disguise: Fantastic Four vs. the X-Men.

“I’m playing Nightcrawler again now. I was just learning stunts yesterday for some fight scene,” Alan Cumming, who first played blue-skinned, BAMF-ing teleporter Kurt Wagner in 2003’s X2: X-Men United, told BuzzFeed UK. “I just think, ‘I’m 60 years old.’ 23 years ago I played that superhero — I was kind of old for a superhero even then, and now I’m back doing it. And that, to me, is hilarious.”

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“I’m sorting of learning these fights like, ‘What? Who am I fighting with?’ ‘You’re hitting Pedro Pascal against the head,’” the actor added, seemingly spoiling a Nightcrawler and Mister Fantastic fight scene. “It’s just that I can’t quite believe, especially because [X2] was such a long time ago.”

Cumming reprises his Marvel role for the first time since the original X-Men sequel in 2003, returning to the X-verse alongside his X2 co-stars Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier), James Marsden (Cyclops), Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), and Ian McKellen (Magneto). Also back from the Fox X-Men movies is Kelsey Grammer, who played Beast in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand and 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past before appearing in the post-credits scene of 2023’s The Marvels.

Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine was the first time that the formerly Fox-controlled X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises appeared together in the same film, which featured the likes of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine alongside Chris Evans’ Human Torch.

Cumming’s comments suggest 1987’s Fantastic Four vs. the X-Men, a four-issue limited series by writer Chris Claremont and artist Jon Bogdanove, might have proved influential on Avengers: Doomsday. The two teams clashed in the pages of Fantastic Four vs. X-Men #2 before joining forces against a mutual enemy: Doctor Doom. In 2005’s X-Men/Fantastic Four — billed as X4 — the Fab Four traded blows before uniting with an X-Men team that included Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, Gambit, Beast, and Emma Frost.

In addition to the previously mentioned actors, the expansive Doomsday cast includes Pascal’s Fantastic Four: First Steps co-stars Vanessa Kirby (Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn (Human Torch), and Ebon Mass-Bachrach (the Thing), the cast of Thunderbolts* — Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Wyatt Russell (John Walker), Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), and Lewis Pullman (Bob Reynolds/Sentry) — Black Panther‘s Winston Duke (M’Baku), Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Namor), and Letitia Wright (Shuri/Black Panther), Shang-Chi‘s Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Captain America: Brave New World‘s Danny Ramirez (Joaquin Torres/Falcon), and Deadpool & Wolverine‘s Channing Tatum (Remy LaBeau/Gambit).

Also returning are Marvel Cinematic Universe vets Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Captain America), Benedict Cumberbatch (Stephen Strange/Dr. Strange), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man), Benedict Wong (Wong), and Tom Hiddleston (Loki). Captain America stars Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell are also reportedly poised to return.

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Doomsday is slated to open May 1, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7, 2027.