Marvel is reportedly focusing on making an X-Men movie with a younger cast “to keep the cost down,” as well as Black Panther 3, while it’s apparently in no rush to get Blade or Deadpool 4 out the door.
According to Variety, the game has changed for Marvel Studios and its boss, Kevin Feige, with superhero movies now unlikely to regularly hit the billion dollar heights of yesteryear.
And so, Marvel is trying to keep production costs down in order to make the movies it does release more likely to secure profitability. That moves us onto X-Men, which Variety said will begin casting soon. It’s apparently on the hunt for younger actors rather than A-listers to “keep the cost down.”
That tallies with recent comments from Feige, who indicated Marvel plans to reboot the X-Men franchise with a “very youth-oriented” take, featuring a young cast.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes screenwriter Michael Lesslie is developing the reboot’s script, while Thunderbolts* / The New Avengers director Jake Schreier was recently confirmed to be helming the project.
One big question is when this new X-Men film will come out, with just Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars announced with release dates for 2026 and 2027.
Variety said Marvel is holding July 23, 2027 for an unnamed film, but it won’t go to X-Men. What will it go to then? Perhaps it will go to Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther 3, which is apparently creating excitement at Marvel.
No Spider-Man (not that anyone can remember who Peter Parker is now, mind you), no Hulk, no Hawkeye, no Nick Fury, no Rhodey (the real one we found out about in Secret Invasion). Not even Pepper Potts or Happy Hogan to tag along for old times’ sake. And while Captain Carter was reportedly in the mix at one point, Hayley Atwell wasn’t among those announced today.
No Hugh Jackman/Wolverine, no Halle Berry/Storm, no Famke Janssen/Jean Grey, no Anna Paquin/Rogue, no Ryan Reynolds/Deadpool. Ditto Colossus, Iceman, or any of the First Class incarnations of the X-Men. Oh, and no New Mutants either (remember them???).
While Chris Hemsworth’s Thor was the first announced cast member of this particular Avengers lineup, none of his fellow Asgardians – whom he split from at the end of Thor: Love and Thunder – seem to be involved save for the Loki Variant. So no Valkyrie, Korg, Miek or Lady Sif. Maybe his adopted daughter Love will show up though? And we’ll see if Zeus or Hercules ever do catch up with Thor despite what was teased in the Love and Thunder post-credits scene.
Star-Lord’s return has been previously teased at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, so his inclusion in the Avengers ranks for Doomsday seemed likely. But alas neither Star-Lord nor any of the new Guardians lineup introduced in Vol. 3 – Rocket, Groot, Kraglin, Cosmo, Adam, Phyla, and Blurp – are part of this movie.
Captain Marvel’s importance in Endgame would have suggested that, as one of the most powerful Avengers, she would be in Doomsday. But with The Marvels tanking at the box office, none of those characters – Ms. Marvel, Spectrum, Binary, or even Nick Fury – were announced for Doomsday. This is all the more curious as we know Binary ended up in the X-Men universe with Kelsey Grammer’s Beast, who will be in the movie. In fact, there’s a noticeable lack of female cast members overall in Avengers: Doomsday…
While Benedict Cumberbatch did say his Doctor Strange will be in Secret Wars but not Doomsday, it’s weird that such a cosmic event wouldn’t see the MCU’s reigning Sorcerer Supreme, Wong, show up. (We can assume Doc Strange and Charlize Theron’s Clea are off galavanting on some other plane as the events of Doomsday play out.) No Scarlet Witch or Agatha Harkness either.
There’s a decided lack of Disney+ show characters in Avengers: Doomsday. So no Daredevil, Punisher, Vision, Sylvie, Moon Knight, Echo, She-Hulk, Werewolf by Night, Agent Mobius or the TVA.
Given the dismal box office and critical results of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Marvel is putting those characters, with the exception of Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang, on the sidelines for this installment. So no Hank Pym or Janet Van Dyne. And Evangeline Lilly previously announced that she was stepping away from acting so that might be another key reason why Wasp is sitting this one out.
Not a one. Not even Harry Styles as Eros! This is probably not surprising since the film disappointed at the box office, but given the movie’s cliffhanger ending with Arishem and the fact that Captain America: Brave New World addressed the giant dead Celestial in the ocean, maybe we’ll see Sersi, Kingo, Sprite (or not since she was made human in the end), Phastos, Makkari, Druig, and Thena show up in Avengers: Secret Wars instead.
The MCU has been teasing a Young Avengers lineup for a few years now – Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop, America Chavez, Skaar, Eli Bradley, possibly Iron Lad and T’Challa’s son – but not one of them is in Doomsday.
This shouldn’t be surprising since they still haven’t shot the Blade movie with Mahershala Ali despite teasing him in Eternals. And while Channing Tatum’s Gambit (somehow) managed to survive to fight in Doomsday, Wesley Snipes’ Blade perished in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Perhaps surprisingly, Marvel is said to be feeling “no sense of urgency” on the troublesome Blade reboot or even Deadpool 4. Given the huge success of Deadpool & Wolverine, you’d think Feige would want another surefire hit, but according to this new report, fans may have to wait.
Meanwhile, Variety reported on Pedro Pascal’s place in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, given THE recent clarification about Mister Fantastic not in fact leading the Avengers in the movie. Pascal is said to have an “integral” role, but is not the “centerpiece.” It seems inevitable that Avengers: Doomsday will spend some time revealing how The Fantastic Four end up colliding with the superheroes we know from MCU already, via the Thunderbolts* post-credits scene.
Here’s what we know: Avengers: Doomsday will bring back much of Fox’s original X-Men cast, including Patrick Stewart (again) as Professor X, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Famke Jansen as Jean Grey, and James Marsden as Cyclops.
Marvel recently confirmed that Avengers: Secret Wars would act as something of a “reset” for the MCU (don’t call it a reboot), allowing its universe to feature fresh versions of classic characters — such as the X-Men — interacting with the surviving members of its main cast.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
