Disney’s Marvel Studios on March 26 revealed the bumper cast of its next Avengers film, six years after Avengers: Endgame (2019) became the highest-grossing movie of all time.
English actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are among those surprisingly returning to the superhero roster for Avengers: Doomsday, out in May 2026.
They will join a raft of widely expected fan favourites, including American actor Robert Downey Jr and Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, a viral five-hour-long video announcement confirmed.
The Marvel superhero films are comfortably the most lucrative franchise in Hollywood history, having collectively made more than US$30bil (RM132.9bil).
As its title suggests, Avengers: Doomsday is intended to be an ensemble blockbuster event in the style of the franchise’s pinnacle, Avengers: Endgame, which grossed US$2.8bil (RM12.4bil).
Endgame was briefly the highest-grossing movie in history, before the original Avatar (2009) reclaimed its crown with a theatrical re-release.
Like Endgame, Doomsday will again team up characters and wrap up storylines in a grand finale to more than a dozen preceding Marvel films.
While several returning superheroes – and the actors playing them – had been previously announced, Marvel revealed the whole set in a livestreamed video.
Surprises included octogenarian thespians Stewart and McKellen, who previously appeared in early X-Men films (2000 to 2020) as Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto respectively but were thought to have been written out or recast.
Returning favourites include Hemsworth’s Thor, American actor Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man and English actor Tom Hiddleston’s Loki.
Actors’ names were written on the backs of Hollywood-style directors’ chairs, with a camera slowly panning from one to the next every 10 to 15 minutes until ending with Downey Jr appearing in-person.
Marvel previously announced that the Oscar winner will return to the franchise as the villainous Doctor Doom.
“It all leads to Doom. #AvengersDoomsday is now in production,” said an accompanying message.
Downey Jr kick-started the Marvel big-screen phenomenon back in 2008, playing an entirely different character – Iron Man.
The franchise went on an unprecedented red-hot box office streak, raking in billions of dollars. Iron Man, who appeared in 10 of the films, died at the end of Endgame.
Post-Endgame, the films have lost some lustre, with a dozen movies since receiving mostly weaker reviews.
Box office receipts have also fallen from their peak, though are still enviable compared with almost any other Hollywood franchise.
The viral unveiling on March 26 demonstrates how key to Marvel and Disney the success of Avengers: Doomsday – and 2027 follow-up Avengers: Secret Wars – will be.
The video was watched nearly four million times in its first seven hours. – AFP
