‘Avengers: Doomsday’ cast includes familiar favorites and an ‘X-Men’ reunion

The longest Marvel movie has a runtime just over 3 hours. On Wednesday, the studio easily surpassed that length to announce the cast of the newest “Avengers” title.

It took 5 hours and 26 minutes for the superhero studio to unveil the stars of the hotly anticipated “Avengers: Doomsday,” which it also announced has started production.

Through a livestream on YouTube and its social media channels, Marvel unveiled the cast by revealing a new director’s chair with an actor’s name about every 10 minutes, with 27 actors announced in what appeared to be no particular order.

“Avengers: Doomsday” marks a return for many familiar Marvel faces, including directors Joe and Anthony Russo. The brothers guided the “Avengers” franchise through its sprawling storyline that culminated in “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019. When the duo appeared at San Diego Comic-Con last summer to announce their upcoming plans, they brought along Marvel icon Robert Downey Jr., known for his portrayal of Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man. Downey will be making his return to the MCU as Doctor Doom in “Doomsday,” which will be released May 1, 2026.

The announcement video culminated with Downey walking down the long line of chairs and sitting in the final one, marked with his name. About 10 million people were watching the livestream on X when it concluded.

The reunions will continue, with many of the original Avengers revealed as part of the “Doomsday” cast. Those include Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Captain America, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier and Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man, whose chair in the announcement video was appropriately ant-sized.

Tom Hiddleston will be back as God of Mischief Loki, Thor’s brother, in a twist that came about 3 hours and 45 minutes into the livestream. The finale of the Disney+ series “Loki” saw the titular character taking on a role integral to the stability of the entire multiverse, and his inclusion in “Doomsday” surprised many fans.

20th Century Fox’s X-Men universe is officially merging with the MCU. Patrick Stewart will appear in “Doomsday” as Professor Charles Xavier, after making a brief cameo as the character in 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Ian McKellen will make his Marvel debut, likely reprising his role of Magneto. Kelsey Grammer, who played Hank McCoy/Beast in the “X-Men” movies, also was announced among the cast. Grammer made a cameo as Beast in one of the studio’s famous mid-credits scenes in “The Marvels” in 2023.

Alan Cumming, James Marsden and Rebecca Romijn of the “X-Men” world — all Marvel newcomers — will appear as well. Cumming played Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, Romijn portrayed Raven Darkholme/Mystique before Jennifer Lawrence took over the role, and Marsden was Scott Summers/Cyclops.

Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019 also means Marvel has the film rights to the “Fantastic Four” characters, who are Doctor Doom’s adversaries. Vanessa Kirby plays Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Pedro Pascal plays Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Ebon Moss-Bachrach plays Ben Grimm/Thing and Joseph Quinn plays Johnny Storm/Human Torch. The foursome will first appear in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which hits theaters July 25, before they return in “Doomsday.”

Another upcoming Marvel title, “Thunderbolts*,” coming to theaters May 2, also will lend much of its cast to the crowded “Doomsday” call sheet. The “Thunderbolts*” crew who will reprise their roles include Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Lewis Pullman as Bob Reynolds/Sentry, Wyatt Russell as John Walker and Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost.

Simu Liu, who played the title role in “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” will reprise his role. “Black Panther” alums Letitia Wright (Shuri), Winston Duke (M’Baku) and Tenoch Huerta Mejia (Namor) also are part of the cast. Danny Ramirez, who portrays Joaquin Torres/Falcon and most recently appeared in last month’s “Captain America: Brave New World,” will return.

Channing Tatum, a stand-out in “Deadpool & Wolverine” as Gambit, will reprise his role. Tatum had long been attached to an “X-Men” spinoff for the character, which ended up becoming a casualty of Disney’s acquisition of Fox.

It’s unclear how “Doomsday” will cohesively wrap all of these characters and complex storylines into one movie.

The drawn-out style of the announcement proved to be unpopular with some fans online, with one writing on X, “By the time they finish announcing the cast like this, Doomsday will be out on Disney+.”

Marvel will wrap up Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Thunderbolts*” in May, and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” will kick off Phase 6 the following month. “Avengers: Doomsday,” the fifth “Avengers” movie, was originally supposed to be “Avengers: Kang Dynasty.” The fate of that film was in limbo after Marvel fired Jonathan Majors last year following his conviction on assault and harassment charges. Majors had previously played villain Kang the Conqueror in the MCU.