All roads lead to Doom. At least, they do if you’re an actor that has ever had a fleeting appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it seems. After the revelation that Robert Downey Jr. would return to the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday, this time as Doctor Doom, the film world was stunned by the unveiling of a whole host of new additions to cast.
Marvel had us all on tenterhooks with a six-hour long Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal, which featured a slow reveal of set chairs with the casts' names attached. The announcement brought a lot of familiar faces from the past to the fore, including popular characters from Fox's X-Men franchise. If you've looked through the cast and you're wondering where you last saw each character in the MCU's continuity, we've got you covered with this guide. You can also use JustWatch to find out where to stream them all in the U.K.
1. James Marsden as Cyclops - X-Men: The Last Stand
The idea of the original X-Men team returning at all is thrilling enough on its own, but getting James Marsden to return as Cyclops is simply a masterstroke on Marvel’s part. With the exception of a small cameo in Days of Future Past, we haven’t seen Marsden’s cheeky and charming Scott Summers since X-Men: The Last Stand, and the world of mutants has been poorer without him. We'll have to wait and see how much screen time Marsden's Cyclops will get in Avengers: Doomsday, but hopefully he can finally get a proper send-off this time.
2. Sir Ian McKellen as Magneto - X-Men: Days of Future Past
You just can’t have the original mutants without Magneto, and while we love Michael Fassbender’s turn as the metal-manipulating villain, it’s Sir Ian McKellen who will forever and always be the go-to performance as Erik Lehnsherr. He had a fairly significant role to play in X-Men: Days of Future Past, which ended by changing the course of X-Men history. With McKellen returning in Doomsday, we’ll finally get to see this Omega-level mutant battling it out in the big leagues of the MCU.
3. Sir Patrick Stewart as Professor X - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
If the old X-Men actors need any tips on how to integrate themselves into the MCU, they need look no further than Sir Patrick Stewart–the actor who played their esteemed leader, Professor Charles Xavier, for more than a decade. Just like Fassbender as Magneto, James McAvoy did a fine job of playing a younger version of this character, but no one can match the gravitas and incredible screen presence Stewart brings to the role.
Unlike many of his X-Men peers, Patrick Stewart has already appeared in the MCU, when he played a variant of Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. That version of the character was serving on the superhero council known as the Illuminati. He was ultimately killed by the Scarlet Witch, marking the second time (after Logan) a variant of Patrick Stewart's Xavier has died in a Marvel movie. Third time lucky, anyone?
4. Tom Hiddleston as Loki - Loki season 2
Loki has had one of the most fascinating character arcs in the MCU to date. He’s gone from being Thor’s petulant little brother who so desperately wants to rule, to being a reluctant hero in his own Marvel TV series. That show ended with Loki becoming the overseer and protector of the multiverse itself, tasked with holding the branches of time and reality in the palm of his hands.
The season finale of Loki was a pretty great conclusion to the character’s journey, so it’s a little odd that Marvel are bringing him back. But, with the multiversal responsibility he now bears, he should have a big role to play in Avengers: Doomsday.
5. Channing Tatum as Gambit - Deadpool & Wolverine
Having made quite the name for himself in Deadpool & Wolverine, we were all praying that Channing Tatum would get another chance to strut his stuff as Gambit once more–and our wish has come true.
Channing Tatum's involvement in Marvel history is unlike any other. He had been longing to play the character for more than a decade, but things never quite worked out for him due to the continually changing fate of the X-Men franchise. Plans for a solo feature film as Gambit had even been announced to the public, but this never came into fruition. Thanks to Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman insisting the Cajun card-slinger be brought to life on the big screen, we got one of the best MCU cameos of all time.
If his next outing goes anything like the path we see Gambit tread in X-Men ‘97, we could still see the best of Tatum’s character in Avengers: Doomsday.
6. Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler - X2
Marvel really is digging deep when it comes to reviving the X-Men of yesteryear, with Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler even getting a callback. By the time Avengers: Doomsday makes it to theaters, it will have been 23 years since Cumming’s last (and only) outing as Kurt Wagner in X2, so his return came as a big surprise.
Nightcrawler’s distinctive blue skin, ability to teleport, and quirky personality were one of the more memorable aspects of X2, and we’re sure Cumming will be a scene stealer when he returns to the role next year.
7. Rebecca Romijn as Mystique - X-Men: First Class
Speaking of blue skin, Mystique will be back, with Rebecca Romijn reprising the role in Avengers: Doomsday. Romijn’s Mystique was a key factor in the original X-Men trilogy, before Jennifer Lawrence took on the younger version of the character for the X-Men prequels. Romijn is synonymous with the original X-Men movies but she did have an uncredited cameo in X-Men: First Class, which is technically her most recent appearance as the character.
8. Lewis Pullman as Sentry - Thunderbolts*
OK, we haven’t technically seen Lewis Pullman in the MCU yet, outside of the trailers for Thunderbolts*, but the upcoming anti-hero flick is going to introduce fans to one of Marvel's most powerful characters–Sentry. The character can move at super speed, he can fly, he can mess with energy and atoms, and he’s also pretty much immortal. It figures, then, that he will survive whatever the likes of Yelena and Bucky can throw at him in the upcoming movie. Still, it’s quite surprising that Marvel plans to include such a powerful villain in a film that already has the burden of introducing Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom, the big bad of Marvel’s Phase 6.
9. Tenoch Huerta as Namor - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
In the comic books, Namor is incredibly powerful and important character, both as an Avengers nemesis and as a member of the Illuminati, depending on how he feels on the day. After seeing Namor in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, it’s still quite hard to pin down whose side Namor will be on in the future of the MCU. Still, with how protective he is over his Talokan people, we can certainly imagine Namor’s feathers being ruffled if Doom tries to mess with his part of the world.
10. Kelsey Grammer as Beast - The Marvels
Kelsey Grammar was the first new name to be revealed as part of the Avengers: Doomsday casting announcement, and while it was a slight surprise, we really should have known his version of Beast would have some role to play, given his appearance in the post-credit scene for The Marvels. Anyone who watched that MCU movie will know that Beast is likely to be the bridge between the past and the present for many of Marvel’s main characters. He was a key part of the original X-Men series, appearing in X-Men: The Last Stand, and is known for his vast knowledge on all things scientific.
11. The Fantastic Four - Fantastic Four: First Steps
Perhaps the least surprising of all is the fact that our new Fantastic Four team–Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach)–will be suiting up to face their arch-nemesis, Doctor Doom, for Avengers: Doomsday. All four actors will make their debut in Fantastic Four: First Steps in July 2025.
12. The Avengers - Various Movies Throughout Phase 6
Marvel surprised us with the news of the original X-Men actors joining the Avengers: Doomsday cast, but the more obvious players are back for more, too. We’ve got Chris Hemsworth’s Thor returning, who was last seen in Thor: Love and Thunder. He'll be joined by the new Captain America, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), who recently had his first solo adventure in Captain America: Brave New World alongside the new Falcon (Danny Ramirez). Black Panther (Letitia Wright) and M’Baku (Winston Duke) will both return for the first time since Black Panther: Wakanda, while Paul Rudd's Ant-Man was last seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. For the first time since Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, we'll get to see Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) once again, along with a bunch of the Thunderbolts team including Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour).
To watch all of these actors and their superhero characters in action, you can dive in below to see where their latest films and TV shows are playing on streaming services like Disney Plus, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video.
