Marvel Studios unveils cast for long-awaited Avengers: Doomsday

Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Paul Rudd and Letitia Wright are among the stars appearing in Avengers: Doomsday.

Marvel Studios have unveiled the cast for the long-awaited film in a nearly five-and-a-half hour livestream on Wednesday (March 26), in which around every 12 minutes, a new chair with an actor's name on the back was revealed.

Besides Chris (Thor), Tom (Loki), Paul (Ant-Man) and Letitia (Black Panther), other cast members included Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) stars Anthony Mackie (Captain America), Sebastian Stan (The Winter Soldier), Wyatt Russell (US Agent) Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), Danny Ramirez (The Falcon) and Winston Duke (M'Baku).

The Avengers: Doomsday cast also features the return of stars from 2000's X-Men — the movie which kicked off the modern superhero era — including Sir Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Sir Ian McKellen (Magneto), James Marsden (Cyclops) and Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), as well as Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) from X2: X-Men United and Kelsey Grammer (Beast) from X-Men: The Last Stand.

Stars from the upcoming Thunderbolts film, Lewis Pullman (Bob), David Harbour (Red Guardian) and Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost) were also revealed in the video, as were members of the Fantastic Four including Pedro Pascal (Mr Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (The Invisible Woman), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Thing) and Joseph Quinn (The Human Torch).

Tom Holland (Spider-Man) and Chris Evans (Captain America), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange) and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) were among the notable names not mentioned in the reveal.

The lengthy livestream ended with previously announced cast member Robert Downey Jr — who will play Doctor Doom — walking out in a suit to take a seat in his chair and make a "shush" gesture to the camera.

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo recently insisted "nobody else in the world" could take on the role of Doctor Doom other than Robert, who previously led the MCU as Iron Man from 2008 until the character's death in Avengers: Endgame in 2019.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Anthony, 55, said: "We can't explain that as it's part of the story, but there's nobody else in the world who could play this character the way he's about to."

Avengers: Doomsday — which will be followed by Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027 — will mark the Russo brothers' first Marvel movie since 2019's Avengers: Endgame, and Anthony explained the pair decided to return to the franchise in order to give it "a central narrative".

The co-director said: "Yes, the MCU has got quite large, that's for sure. I mean, frankly, we struggle with that same issue.

"But part of the reason Joe and I decided to go back is exactly what you're talking about. There needs to be more of a central narrative. That was something we were very specific about when we worked with Marvel [before]. We would like to bring the focused narrative back."

Reflecting on Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, Joe, 53, said the two films would be "a beginning" for the MCU, rather than Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame — which served as a bookend to the franchise's Infinity Saga.

He told Omlete: "The greatest thing that ever happened is we got to, you know, get immersed in a 20-movie arc and see an ending to that arc.

"What's compelling about these two new Avengers movies is they're a beginning. It's a new beginning.

"We told an ending story, now we're going to tell a beginning story. And then who knows where we'll go from there.

"Maybe it'll be another five years, but I think we just needed that time and perspective to figure out where it needed to go next, and the only thing that brought us back was the right story."

Source: Bang