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So, after a five-hour live-stream, we finally know at least part of the cast for Avengers: Doomsday. There are a lot of obvious names in there, like Anthony Mackie, Florence Pugh and Paul Rudd, but the ones that really caught people’s attention were the new (or rather old) faces who will be entering the MCU, like Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and Kelsey Grammer.

It looks like they will be returning to the characters that first debuted in the Fox X-Men movies from the 2000s. Now they are to be in an Avengers movie, and it just seems like the wrong choice.

With all the stuff about the Multiverse, there are any number of ways they could be introduced, as the Fantastic Four will be entering from another universe, no doubt thanks to Doctor Doom, and we’ll get some sort of showdown between all these characters, Endgame style. Whether they’ll be on the side of the Avengers, or against them, or both, who knows?

There are a lot of things that don’t make me excited for Avengers: Doomsday, not least the Russo Brothers’ performance with The Electric State, but also just how messy this is all starting to look, with so many crossovers, universes, and characters entering from other franchises, with completely different power level. It will make it difficult for audiences to have a clue what’s going on here. Yes, the fans might know, but fans alone won’t bring you two billion dollars.

I’m a fan of the X-Men movies, and these are some great actors announced here, but the real question is why? Why exactly are these actors being brought back to play these characters who they first played over twenty-five years ago? Is it solely to serve the story, or is it for another reason?

Because, while this has gotten fans excited for what’s to come in 2026, I can’t help feeling this isn’t a triumphant new chapter, but rather a desperate last gasp.

Not only does this read like a comic con guest list, and it’s hard to see how even half these characters could be given something meaningful to do, it also feels like it’s completely the wrong direction for the MCU to take. It’s essentially the literal “endgame” for the franchise, rather than a new beginning.

These are not fresh and exciting characters with their own stories to tell. They are old characters who’ve been portrayed for decades by these actors, and there’s not necessarily anything left for them to say.

Why not actually make your own version of the X-Men, if you must? After all, they are doing it with the Fantastic Four, ignoring the 2005 and 2015 versions. Why bring back these same actors once again? And I think the answer there is because they are hoping to capitalize on that, and bring in that audience that might not have joined them from the Fox days, but also that they no longer have the confidence to fly on their own. They need to hold on to other things, to what they think is dependable and unbreakable, which is the reason they brought back Robert Downey Jr. to play Doctor Doom, rather than creating an original character.

It feels like the franchise is winding down. These characters have had their time, and it would be perfectly reasonable to make new versions and introduce them into this new franchise, which would have been the natural course of action before the cinematic universe/multiverse became the standard in Hollywood.

This doesn’t feel like it’s a well though out story point, more like it’s a way to make an easy buck. It looks like the Ghostbusters: Afterlife of the MCU, where there are just so many memorable things crammed in to get fans excited for this new movie.

And it works, too. Hollywood has been running on nostalgia for so long now, with things like The Force Awakens and Alien: Romulus, and it’s worked for Marvel too, with Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine. Bringing back a fan-favourite actor to a famous role is a sure way to get some buzz, and give a franchise a much needed boost, not to mention bringing in the cash. NWH made almost two billion dollars, and D&W is the highest-grossing R-rated movies ever. As long as it works, they’ll continue doing it until there’s nothing left.

But that’s just the problem, as Ghostbusters showed with Frozen Empire, once you’ve done that, you’ve burnt the last bit of remaining fuel, and now you have nothing. There’s nowhere to go unless you actually take the time and put in the effort to make something new, and carry the franchise forward, because no matter how popular it is, a gimmick is still a gimmick, and people quickly tire of them.

The stacked cast of Avengers: Endgame was earned, and came from somewhere. It had been built up out of twenty-odd films, and every single cameo, every appearance, every hero moment, meant something to the fans who had followed these characters and this story for a decade. Now, these new announcements just feel like an act of desperation, and it’s also telling that they are revealing them now, when there was so much done to keep the appearance of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in No Way Home a secret. They need this pre-sale excitement to try and make another two billion.

Maybe I’m wrong, and there will be a solid reason for this choice. I hope I am. But I get the feeling this is Doomsday for the MCU.

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