Hmmm … About That VERY Long List of Characters in “Avengers: Doomsday”
by Ray Keating
Commentary
March 28, 2025
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Marvel/Disney made its big announcement this week about the cast of Avengers: Doomsday, which is scheduled to be released in theaters on May 1, 2026.
And the cast is, well, really long. Here it is from the Disney release: “The Avengers: Doomsday cast includes Chris Hemsworth, Vanessa Kirby, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, Wyatt Russell, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Simu Liu, Florence Pugh, Kelsey Grammer, Lewis Pullman, Danny Ramirez, Joseph Quinn, David Harbour, Winston Duke, Hannah John-Kamen, Tom Hiddleston, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, Channing Tatum, Pedro Pascal, and — as previously announced — Disney Legend Robert Downey Jr.”
But it might not stop there. Not according to Disney, as noted in a company release touting the number of views that the cast announcement received: “So, is that the entire cast? As Marvel Studios teased, ‘There’s always room for more…’”
Really? More?
Beyond the immediate reaction of gushing fans seeing the names of the actors playing their favorite characters, and debating who else might come on board, a question crossed my mind: What is this story going to be and how will all of these characters be jammed into it in some coherent way?
Well, there is Avengers: Secret Wars coming in May 2027, I guess.
After the critical and box office bust of Captain America: Brave New World, I’m actually hopeful for the two upcoming MCU movies – Thunderbolts* (May 2, 2025) and The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25, 2025). I can’t put my finger on why exactly, but the basics of each story seem to have real potential. Of course, we’ll have to see.
But then we go from Fantastic Four right to Doomsday – again, with its very, very long list of characters. It’s hard to not at least consider that those at the helm of an MCU that has been struggling with few hits over the past six years is trying to recapture the success of Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019) by just cramming a lot of heroes into Doomsday and, then, Secret Wars (I think?). But unlike Infinity War and Endgame, there’s no decade of interconnected stories leading up to Doomsday.
I hate to say it, but this feels like a studio saying “Hey, let’s just bring back as many characters as we possibly can. It worked for Infinity War and Endgame, so why not this? Audiences will love it. Will the story possibly work? Hmmm … story?”
Unfortunately, we have seen this before. In fact, just recently, as Brave New World tried to tap into past MCU characters and story points to no avail. Indeed, with the way it was handled, one could argue that the effort contributed to the failure of the movie.
Listen, as a big Marvel fan, not to mention a Disney stockholder, I want these movies to do well. Heck, who wants to go see a muddled movie? So, while I hope and pray for fun movies, with good storytelling and interesting characters, I just can’t get the possibility of a muddled Avengers: Doomsday out of my head.
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Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com; and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries, the Alliance of Saint Michael novels, and assorted nonfiction books. Have Ray Keating speak your group, business, school, church, or organization. Email him at raykeating@keatingreports.com.
The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right? Keating also is a stockholder in Disney.
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