When the cast announcement was made for Avengers: Doomsday a few weeks ago, by far the most surprising thing in it was the inclusion of several of the X-Men from the original trilogy. The details are far and few in between but the X-Men are poised to play a pivotal role in the next two Avengers flicks.
Following Disney's acquisition of Fox in 2019, the film rights to the X-Men have reverted to Marvel Studios. The previous owner, 20th Century Fox, managed to make 13 films based on X-Men characters in the last two decades (in addition to two Daredevil flicks). The films may have been hit and miss, but everybody agrees that the casting was both spot on and iconic. As a result, Disney was forced not to let go of the original cast as global audiences continued to identify them with their respective characters. Recasting Wolverine, Magneto, and others would have been creative suicide, as audiences would constantly compare them to previous versions. If the new MCU casting had been worse (as was the case with Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver), then Marvel’s plans to resurrect the X-Men would have crashed before they even had a chance to take off.
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X-Men Avengers: Doomsday
Thus, Marvel head Kevin Feige set about to test the waters by slowly reintroducing the Fox cast into his sprawling universe. The first original cast member to return in the MCU was Evan Peters, who played a more tongue-in-cheek variant of Quicksilver in the MCU show WandaVision (2021). Next up was Patrick Stewart, who returned as a variant of Professor Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (2022). Then, Kelsey Grammer returned as the comic-accurate Beast in the post-credits scene of The Marvels (2023).
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Next up was the biggest X-Men team-up movie yet in the MCU: Deadpool and Wolverine. Bringing back two of the biggest Fox X-Men characters into the Marvel fold, the film also saw the return of Sabretooth, Pyro, and X-23 (played respectively by their original actors). No doubt, the film’s massive success convinced Fiege to bring back more original X-Men cast members for future projects, and coincidentally, a perfect opportunity was to present itself right around the corner.
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It is not immediately clear whether the inclusion of the X-Men in Doomsday is a knee-jerk reaction to the Kang scenario. Following the sentencing of Jonathan Majors, Marvel swiftly altered their Avengers films by substituting Majors with Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of Doctor Doom. Since Marvel is adapting the Secret Wars storyline for its next two Avengers flicks, the X-Men were always going to make an appearance since they are a huge part of the storyline in the comics. Thus, the returning X-Men are Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen as Magneto, James Marsden as Cyclops, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, and Rebecca Romijn as Mystique.
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X-Men Avengers: Doomsday
At this point, it is important to note that the cast announcements for Avengers: Doomsday are not done yet. Thus, even more X-Men could be part of the film, who are now being kept under wraps by Marvel. It is entirely possible that Hugh Jackman will be back, in addition to Ryan Reynolds and a couple of others. Whatever happens, one thing is clear: Avengers: Doomsday is shaping up to be one hell of a film, and our aspirations for it could not be higher.
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Let’s see what the Russo Brothers manage to cook up when Avengers: Doomsday releases next summer. Let us know in the comments which of the X-Men you think will show up in the films in addition to the ones already announced.
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