Throughout the past decades, the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to grow not only through its fanbase, but through the newly introduced characters alongside the old. On the 26th of March, Marvel announced through a five and a half hour long livestream with over twenty-five returning characters reappearing on screens for the 2026 Marvel project, Avengers: Doomsday.
Some of the most well-known returners include:
- Chris Hemsworth as Thor Odinson
- Anthony Mackie as Captain America
- Tom Hiddleston as Loki
- Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier/Professor X
- Ian McKellen as Magneto
- James Marsden as Cyclops
The most shocking return for some Marvel fans: Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.
The return of previous X-Men characters such as Nightcrawler, Mystique, Cyclops, and others has already sparked excitement for the film. The last time Marvel fans saw the original X-Men characters was as far back as 2006 in X-Men: The Last Stand. Senior Emanuel Jackson said, “I was excited because when I was little, my dad bought the CD of X2, and that was my favorite X-Men movie ever. I was watching that on repeat, because Nightcrawler became one of my favorite X-Men characters–Nightcrawler and Cyclops–and seeing that the guy that’s playing him is coming back into the MCU is really cool.” Cypress counselor, Mr. Hurtado added, “The X-Men and the MCU haven’t really been touched, and it’s a whole other universe that goes so deep with the X-Men…the Multiverse is a whole other layer that Marvel has.”
Marvel had already started the process of slowly bringing back characters outside the MCU, especially with one of their most acclaimed films, Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), which brought out Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire to play their versions of Spider-Man and Patrick Stewart, who played Charles Xavier/Professor X, also made an appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness back in 2022.
With the return of additional characters such as Thor Odinson, Captain America, Shuri, Shang-Chi, Loki, and many more, the anticipation to see what Marvel’s plan is for these characters continues to be kept a mystery until 2026.
