Marvel Studios has announced the stacked cast of Avengers: Doomsday in a live-stream of a bunch of chairs – yes, really.
The announcement – timed to mark the start of production on the new movie – started at 3pm UK time today, opening with a set chair being brought into an empty hangar with Chris Hemsworth's name on it.
A new chair was then added every 12-15 minutes, with Vanessa Kirby and Anthony Mackie next up accompanied by a bit of Avengers music for a bit of drama. As the names were unveiled, fans were "freaking out" over an abundance of X-Men stars, with a major reunion set for the likes of Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Rebecca Romijn.
If you missed some of the live-stream and don't want to search back, here's the names announced with their current MCU characters (at this stage, we assume that's who they're playing):
• Chris Hemsworth (Thor)
• Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/Invisible Woman)
• Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Captain America)
• Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes)
• Letitia Wright (Shuri/Black Panther)
• Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man)
• Wyatt Russell (John Walker/US Agent)
• Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Namor)
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing)
• Simu Liu (Shang-Chi)
• Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova)
• Kelsey Grammer (Hank McCoy/Beast)
• Lewis Pullman (Robert 'Bob' Reynolds/Sentry)
• Danny Ramirez (Joaquin Torres/Falcon)
• Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch)
• David Harbour (Red Guardian)
• Winston Duke (M'Baku)
• Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost)
• Tom Hiddleston (Loki)
• Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier/Professor X)
• Ian McKellen (Erik Magnus Lehnsherr/Magneto)
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• Alan Cumming (Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler)
• Rebecca Romijn (Raven Darkhölme/Mystique)
• James Marden (Scott Summers/Cyclops)
• Channing Tatum (Remy LeBeau/Gambit)
• Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic)
• Robert Downey Jr (Doctor Doom)
The announcements kept going until 8.30pm, so fans had a long wait.
"If the cast of Doomsday is literally so big this will run all day. That will literally the funniest thing in the world," one fan wrote on Reddit. Another added: "They need to speed it up omfg."
Related: All you need to know about the next Avengers movie
We already knew that Downey Jr was returning to the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday following a shock announcement at last year's Comic-Con. He will be taking on the iconic villain role of Doctor Doom.
Anthony and Joe Russo are also returning to direct the next Avengers movie, which they've teased is "very radical".
"We found a way into the story that we think is gonna be challenging for audiences, it's challenging for us to execute. And it's really exciting for us, it gets us out of bed to do it," Joe Russo noted.
Related: Scarlett Johansson rules out MCU return
We've already had one MCU movie this year with Captain America: Brave New World, which turned out to be a box-office disappointment for Marvel.
Thunderbolts* (out May 1 in UK, May 2 in US) and The Fantastic Four: First Steps (out July 25) will be hoping for better, both with the critics and at the box office, before Avengers: Doomsday arrives next summer.
Avengers: Doomsday is released in cinemas on May 1, 2026.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
