News Avengers: Doomsday

The Third Avengers: Doomsday Teaser Is Just An Excuse to Feel Nostalgic About The X-Men

It would be more exciting to see these characters in THEIR OWN MOVIE, my dudes

By Molly Templeton

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Published on January 6, 2026

Screenshot: Marvel Studios

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Screenshot: Marvel Studios

In less than a month’s time, we’ve had three teasers for Avengers: Doomsday, which comes out at the end of this year. The first teaser promised that Steve Rogers (and his baby) will return in Avengers: Doomsday; the second showcased Thor being stressed about being a father. And now the third is about the X-Men (emphasis on men).

It feels curmudgeonly, a bit, to be grumpy about seeing Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen together as Professor X and Magneto again. But there’s a quality to these teasers—heavy-handed, pushing on the feelings buttons—that suggests all these characters are just being dragged out again to get killed off. There is no sense of the movie itself, just a CGI-looking trip to a battered Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters; a Stewart voiceover announcing “Death comes for us all,” and a perfect, sly grin passing between old friends.

And also Cyclops (James Marsden) does a big red eye-beam.

Other X-Men will be in Doomsday, including Beast (Kelsey Grammer), Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), Gambit (sigh, Channing Tatum), and Mystique (Rebecca Romijn). Returning Avengers, along with Thor and Cap, include Anthony Mackie (also Captain America), Danny Ramirez (Falcon), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Letitia Wright (Black Panther), Winston Duke (M’Baku), and Simu Liu—and also the other Avengers, which is to say the ones previously known as the Thunderbolts: Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), David Harbour (Red Guardian), Wyatt Russell (John Walker), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), and Lewis Pullman (Bob).

And the Fantastic Four will be here, too: Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm.

That’s too many people. I don’t even want to bring up the whole Robert Downey Jr./Doctor Doom thing.

Avengers: Doomsday is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo from a script by Stephen McFeely (the Russos’ frequent writer) and Michael Waldron (the guy who made a lot of frustrating choices for Loki). The movie will be in theaters December 18.[end-mark]

The post The Third <i>Avengers: Doomsday</i> Teaser Is Just An Excuse to Feel Nostalgic About The X-Men appeared first on Reactor.

News The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Why Fantastic Four’s Post-Credits Scene Doesn’t Explain that Thunderbolts* Tease

It turns out the post-credits scenes in The Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts* came from the same directors.

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on July 30, 2025

Screenshot: Marvel Studios

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Screenshot: Marvel Studios

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thunderbolts*.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps takes place in a different version of Earth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, specifically Earth-828 rather than the Earth-616 we’ve come to know and maybe love from the several dozen MCU films that came before it. That’s why the post-credits scene from Thunderbolts* , where we see The Fantastic Four land on Earth-616, stirred up excitement for many a Marvel fan. Sue Storm, Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm will officially interact with other MCU characters!

That post-credits scene, however, confused those who were expecting to see The Fantastic Four jump Earths in the post-credits scene for First Steps. Instead of some multiverse hopping, we see the back of Robert Downey Jr.’s head, mask in hand, as he bends over a four-year-old Franklin Richards, Sue and Reed’s son. Intriguing scene? Yes. But not something that really ties in well with what we saw in Thunderbolts*.

So is the Thunderbolts* post-credits scene a hint at what’s to come in Avengers: Doomsday or another MCU film? Perhaps, but the behind-the-scenes situation sounds a bit more complicated. In an interview with Cinemablend, Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman explained why his film didn’t line up with the post-credit scene that came before it.

“The Thunderbolts* end credit scene was also created, you know, relatively late in my process too, so that was not something that I was familiar with because it hadn’t been created at the time that I was working on my script,” he said, adding that the creation of the MCU is like a relay race, where directors pass the baton.

In this case, it turns out the post-credits scenes for both Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four were directed by the Russo Brothers, who are helming Avengers: Doomsday. How those two scenes connect to Doomsday, it seems, is a question for the Russo Brothers. Unsurprisingly, they’re being tight-lipped about the whole thing, though they did confirm in an interview on the Phase Hero podcast that that was, indeed, the back of Downey’s head and not a stand-in.

We’ll get to see Downey’s face (presumably) and lots and lots of other MCU actors when Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18, 2026. [end-mark]

The post Why <i>Fantastic Four</i>’s Post-Credits Scene Doesn’t Explain that <i>Thunderbolts*</i> Tease appeared first on Reactor.

News Avengers: Doomsday

Marvel is Announcing the Cast of Avengers: Doomsday in the Most Annoying Way Possible

It’s unmusical chairs.

By Molly Templeton

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Published on March 26, 2025

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I have been staring, intermittently, at a livestream of chairs. I have been staring at this livestream of chairs for well over an hour. [UPDATE: 4+ hours!!!] This is how Marvel has chosen to reveal the cast of Avengers: Doomsday: One chair at a time, an actor’s name across the back of each one.

Positive: The Paul Rudd chair is small.
Negative: It’s not small enough. It is a hobbit chair, not a tiny Ant-Man chair.
Positive: Vanessa Kirby should be in everything.
Negative: This should really be just one chair with Tatiana Maslany’s name on it, and she should play everyone.

The movie will feature:

• Chris Hemsworth (Thor)
• Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm)
• Anthony Mackie (Captain America)
• Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes)
• Letitia Wright (Shuri)
• Wyatt Russell (John Walker)
• Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Namor)
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing)
• Simu Liu (Shang-Chi)
• Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova)
• Kelsey Grammer (HABEMUS BEAST)
• Lewis Pullman (Bob Reynolds/Sentry)

We will receive more chairs until morale improves!

Since 1:30pm EST, Avengers: Doomsday has added:

• Danny Ramirez (Joaquin Torres / Falcon)
• Joseph Quinn (our latest Johnny Storm/Human Torch)
• David Harbour (walking Communist Manifesto Red Guardian)
• Winston Duke (M’Baku/the reason at least a couple of us are excited about this movie now)
• Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr / Ghost)
• Tom Hiddleston (Loki, we assume—BUT WHICH LOKI)
• Channing Tatum (Gambit, presumably)
• Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mr. Stretchy)
• Patrick Stewart (Professor X/ Gandalf)
• Ian McKellen (Magneto/Saruman)

Further additions include!

• Alan Cumming (our beloved Nightcrawler)
• Rebecca Romijn (Mystique/Senator Robert Kelly)
• James Marsden (Cyclops/crying over Jean Grey)

FINAL UPDATE: 5 ½ hours!
Academy Award-winning actor Robert Downey Jr., who was announced as Doctor Doom eight long months ago, slowly (so slowly!) walked to the end of the row of chairs, and took his seat in a chair that said James Leer his name. The Abyss did, indeed, stare back—and held a finger to his lips to seal us into a secret that everyone already knows. This probably sums something up about reality, but I don’t want to know what that something is.

The internet wasn’t having this. Well, except when they were having fun with it:

We were also having fun with it.

In conclusion:

This post will be updated when further chairs are announced.

UPDATE: As I finished this post, Simu Liu’s chair arrived. Presumably he is playing Shang-Chi.

UPDATE UPDATE: Florence Pugh will also be in the film, presumably playing Yelena Belova. Are these casting announcements Thunderbolts* spoilers? Is everyone not in Doomsday going to die in that movie?

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: HABEMUS BEAST. Or at least Kelsey Grammer. And Lewis Pullman! Here’s the livestream so you, too, can stare at chairs:

Note: Contains additional nonsense commentary by Chris Lough, Leah Schnelbach, and Stefan Raets. [end-mark]

The post Marvel is Announcing the Cast of <i>Avengers: Doomsday</i> in the Most Annoying Way Possible appeared first on Reactor.

News Avengers: Doomsday

Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter Will Also Return in Avengers: Doomsday

Agent, not Captain, alas

By Molly Templeton

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Published on December 16, 2024

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Once upon a time, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) had a romance troubled by time and superhero business. In Avengers: Endgame, they got a happy ending, at least if you didn’t ask any questions about time travel and… let’s not get into it. Their story—apart from some multiversal mayhem and the series What If…?—seemed to be mostly over.

Just kidding.

Last week, the news broke first that Evans will be returning to the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday, though it has not been made clear that he will (or won’t) be playing Captain America. Later in the week, more news: Atwell, too, will be returning, though Deadline’s sources are clearer on this front: “Sources tell Deadline that Hayley Atwell is expected to reprise her Agent Carter role in the film.”

Of course, none of this means anything until it does. It could be that they both appear in a multiversal moment of happiness that zips by while someone is barreling through worlds and times. It could be virtually nothing. It could be a lot! Though, as noted, Deadline’s story specifies Agent Carter—not Captain Carter (who Atwell played in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, pictured above).

Hayley Atwell is a fantastic actress (seriously, go watch her with Matthew Goode and Ben Whishaw in the 2008 Brideshead Revisited!) and should get to be in everything. Peggy Carter is a delightful character. But isn’t Marvel creating a whole new baby Avengers team with its TV series? Is there not a lot more ground to cover in decades’ worth of comics? Do we need to go back to the same wells? That said, I will eat my words if they let currently 42-year-old Atwell be a full-fledged action star.

Everything old may or may not be new again when Avengers: Doomsday arrives on May 1, 2026.[end-mark]

The post Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter Will <i>Also</i> Return in <i>Avengers: Doomsday</i> appeared first on Reactor.

News Avengers: Doomsday

Chris Evans Just Can’t Quit the MCU

Will America’s ass never be free?

By Molly Templeton

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Published on December 10, 2024

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It’s impossible not to cross franchises here as one must simply say: He’ll be back. Chris Evans, who famously and melodramatically (not to mention somewhat illogically) hung up Captain America’s tight pants in Avengers: Endgame, is headed back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Hollywood Reporter “has confirmed” that Evans will be in Avengers: Doomsday.

The question, naturally, is: In what role? It has not been confirmed who Evans will be playing. Some folks want to leap to Captain America conclusions; others wish to return him to the role of Johnny Storm, which he played in two Fantastic Four movies and, more recently, Deadpool & Wolverine. (Yes, there is another Fantastic Four movie coming, but Marvel has made it quite clear that there can be different versions of various characters in their endless multiverses.)

Doomsday will bring Evans back together with his longtime costar Robert Downey Jr., who is also returning to the MCU—this time as Doctor Doom. That casting does make it seem like absolutely anything is possible in terms of Evans’ own role.

With the exception of his excellent sweater-wearing in Knives Out and return to the role of Lucas Lee in the animated Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Evans has not had the most exciting career post-Captain America, sadly. He voiced Buzz Lightyear in Lightyear, did some moral dubiousness in The Gray Man (also courtesy of the Russos), and had the misfortune to be cast in Red One (pictured above). Perhaps the man just wants to have fun again.

Doomsday will, eventually, come to us via the Russo brothers, who have already made a bunch of MCU movies and really ought to let someone else have a turn. At any rate, we have until May 1, 2026, to prepare ourselves for Doom.[end-mark]

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News SDCC 2024

Marvel Brings Back Robert Downey Jr. and the Russo Brothers for the Next Two Avengers Movies

“New mask, same task,” as RDJ put it

By Molly Templeton

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Published on July 29, 2024

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What’s that saying again? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? That seems to be the tack Marvel is taking with the MCU. Arguably the biggest announcement out of San Diego Comic Con is the news that the superhero juggernaut plans to do more of the same in the next few years: They’ve brought back Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr., to play Doctor Doom—and Joe and Anthony Russo (Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame) will return to direct the next two Avengers films. Their production company, AGBO, will co-produce with Marvel.

[ed. note: have this link! have this reading rec!]

One of those films, at least, has changed considerably. Avengers: Secret Wars remains the grand finale to this phase of the MCU. But the film before that is no longer Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, but Avengers: Doomsday, which presumably answers any remaining questions about the role of Kang in the wake of actor Jonathan Majors’ conviction for harassment and assault.

Another man is returning from the previous Marvel era, too: Stephen McFeely, who wrote the previous four Russo brothers Marvel movies (and Thor: The Dark World, among other things), is now writing these two Avengers films. He follows in the writerly footsteps of Loki‘s Michael Waldron.

Marvel announced or confirmed a few more things at SDCC—like that Harrison Ford is Red Hulk, which everyone who saw the Captain America: Brave New World trailer had essentially already surmised, and that the Fantastic Four film is called The Fantastic Four: First Steps—but nothing quite matched the chaos caused by Downey Jr.’s return.

[What’s this? Another ed. note???]

Given that Secret Wars is a multiversal story, there’s naturally some question about whether this Doom is a multiversal variant of Tony Stark. One way or another, he’s key to the Secret Wars storyline, which is extremely difficult to sum up but involves the destruction of a whole lot of Marvel universes and the formation of a place called Battleworld, where Doom (and some other characters) brings a handful of rescued characters. There are pocket universes! Doom becomes God Emperor Doom! Even the Punisher shows up.

And Doctor Doom is, of course, often an antagonist to the Fantastic Four, though not in their upcoming movie, where they’ll have Galactus to deal with. But—multiverses and saga-ending stories allowing—presumably this Doom could be around for a while. Maybe not as long as Iron Man, though.

Avengers: Doomsday is set to release in May of 2026.[end-mark]

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