When it was announced that most of the main cast from 20th Century Fox's X-Men movies would be returning for Avengers: Doomsday, it was generally assumed that they'd show up for extended cameos, but it's looking increasingly likely that the mutant heroes are going to have a much bigger part to play.
We have heard that Sir Ian McKellen's Magneto is one of Doomsday's "MVPs," and the legendary actor has previously revealed that his character "destroys New Jersey" in the movie.
"Now, I don't always understand the story of these movies that I'm in, but in this one, I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that Magneto destroys New Jersey."
"I'm sorry about that, New Jersey. So, I'm standing up pretending to do that, and the wind is blowing in my hair, and I'm putting on a fierce look, and I'm trying to be magnetic," he added. "The director on the loudspeaker says, 'Ian, look more furious.' He then said, 'Shout something.' I said, 'What do I shout?' He said, 'Shout the worst thing you could possibly think of.' So I said, 'Mar-a-Lago!'"
More recently, it was reported that Magneto will appear in the film's opening scenes along with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, and we may now have a little more to go on.
According to Daniel Richtman, "while Spider-Man is fighting Deadpool and Wolverine, Magneto is battling Tobey’s villains."
It's believed that Logan and Wade Wilson (and now Mags) are tasked with destroying Spidey's universe in order to prevent another incursion from doing even more damage across the Multiverse.
This would obviously indicate that we'll see, at the very least, the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) and Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) in Doomsday. Richtman does mention that Magneto appeared in this sequence in the movie's script, so there's a chance things have changed since.
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were hit with significant delays last year, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
Doomsday will star:
Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Lewis Pullman as Sentry, Florence Pugh as Yelena, Danny Ramirez as Falcon, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, James Marsden as Cyclops, Channing Tatum as Gambit, and Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
Along with Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, Letitia Wright as Black Panther, Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor, Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, and, of course, Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.