Two newAvengers films,The Kang Dynasty andSecret Wars, were announced in July 2022 as the conclusion of the MCU'sPhase Six and "The Multiverse Saga".Destin Daniel Cretton was hired to directThe Kang Dynasty andJonathan Majors was set to reprise his MCU role as the villainKang the Conqueror.Jeff Loveness joined the film as writer that September. In November 2023, Cretton departed, Waldron replaced Loveness as writer, and Marvel was considering moving away from the Kang storyline, in part due toMajors's legal issues; Majors was fired the following month. The return of the Russo brothers as directors and McFeely as co-writer, the casting of Downey as new villain Doctor Doom, and the new subtitleDoomsday were all announced in July 2024. Filming began in April 2025 atPinewood Studios in England, with a large cast consisting mainly of actors from previous MCU media and20th Century Fox'sX-Men film series, andwrapped in September. Location filming took place in England andBahrain.
Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 18, 2026, as part of Phase Six of the MCU. The film's sequel,Secret Wars, is set to be released on December 17, 2027.
Paul Rudd asScott Lang / Ant-Man: An Avenger and former petty criminal witha suit that allows him to shrink or grow in scale while increasing in strength[3]
Tenoch Huerta Mejía asNamor: The king ofTalokan and a powerfulmutant with pointed ears and wings on his ankles who is capable of breathing both on land and underwater[3]
Kelsey Grammer asHank McCoy / Beast: A mutant and member of theX-Men with animalistic physical characteristics, including blue fur, pointed ears, fangs, and claws[3]
Lewis Pullman asBob Reynolds / Sentry: A superpowered member of the New Avengers who is believed to be stronger than all of the Avengers combined[3]
Alan Cumming asKurt Wagner / Nightcrawler: A blue-skinned, demonic-looking mutant who canteleport.[3] Cumming said the make-up process was reduced to an hour-and-a-half forDoomsday from the four-and-a-half to five hours it took on the20th Century Fox filmX2 (2003), in large part because the character's tattoos were no longer applied individually by hand.[6] He found working onDoomsday to be "healing" following his miserable experience working onX2.[7]
Pedro Pascal asReed Richards / Mister Fantastic: Sue's husband, Grimm's best friend, and a highly intelligent scientist who is the leader of the Fantastic Four and can stretch any part of his body to great lengths[4]
FollowingMajors's arrest in March 2023 and subsequent assault allegations, reports and speculation emerged about his future in the MCU.[34][35] Loveness was no longer involved in the film by the start of the2023 Writers Guild of America strike in May,[36] reportedly because he was closely associated with the Kang storyline and Marvel was "moving away" from that.[37][38] In June, the release dates forThe Kang Dynasty andSecret Wars were pushed back to May 1, 2026, and May 7, 2027, respectively,[39] in part due to the scripts not being ready before the strike.[40] Cretton stepped down as director ofThe Kang Dynasty in November 2023,[41] partially due to schedule delays,[42] and Waldron was set to rewrite the film.[43] The next month, Majors was fired by Disney and Marvel Studios after he was found guilty of harassment and reckless assault in the third degree. The studio had started referring toThe Kang Dynasty internally asAvengers 5 by then.[44][45] By February 2024, bothAvengers 5 andSecret Wars were being rewritten to minimize Kang's role or remove him entirely following Majors's firing.[46]
Shawn Levy became the studio's top choice to directAvengers 5 by mid-March 2024, after he directed the MCU filmDeadpool & Wolverine (2024), but there were potential scheduling issues with his other projects.[47][48] By that May, Marvel Studios had approachedRobert Downey Jr.—who starred asTony Stark / Iron Man in "The Infinity Saga", covering the MCU'sPhases One,Two, andThree—about returning to the MCU to take on the new character ofVictor von Doom / Doctor Doom. Downey said he would only return if the Russo brothers also returned as directors.[49][50][51] After McFeely approached the Russos with an idea for the films that excited them,[10] they entered early talks to direct bothAvengers 5 andSecret Wars by mid-July.[52] At SDCC at the end of the month, the Russos were confirmed to be directing the two films.[9] They revealed thatAvengers 5 was now titledAvengers: Doomsday, and both films would feature Downey as Doctor Doom.[53] The Russos were producing the films through their production companyAGBO, and McFeely had joined as writer for both films,[9][54] working with Waldron.[55] In March 2025, Marvel announced 26 cast members for the film alongside Downey. Many of those actors returned from previous MCU media, while some were reprising their roles from20th Century Fox'sX-Men film series.[3][56] Downey, Marvel Studios, and Feige teased that there were more cast members to reveal.[57][1] Feige saidDoomsday would focus on theAvengers,Wakandans,Fantastic Four,Thunderbolts—revealed inThunderbolts* (2025) to be the government-sanctionedNew Avengers—and the "original"X-Men teaming up to face Doom.[1][2]
Production designer Gavin Bocquet and cinematographerNewton Thomas Sigel reteamed with the Russo brothers after working on their television seriesCitadel (2023–present).[16][58][independent source needed] Costume designerJudianna Makovsky returned from previous MCU films.[59] The Russos saidDoomsday andSecret Wars were being produced together in a similar way toInfinity War andEndgame, but they would not be filmedback-to-back like those films were.[60]Principal photography forDoomsday began on April 28, 2025,[61] atPinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England,[62] under theworking titleApple Pie 1.[63][independent source needed] In May 2025, Disney delayed the release date to December 18, 2026, to allow more time for production to be completed.[64] Location filming was taking place inBahrain by the end of the month,[16] and was also set to occur atWindsor Great Park in June and August.[65][66][67] Filmingwrapped on September 19.[68]Jeffrey Ford is editing the film after working on previous MCU media.[69][independent source needed]The Hollywood Reporter reported that a "healthy" amount of additional photography was expected,[68] which is expected to take place in early 2026.[70]
Music
In April 2024,Alan Silvestri indicated that he could be composing the music for an upcoming MCU project after previously doing so forInfinity War,Endgame, and other MCU films.[71] That July, he was confirmed to be returning as the composer for bothDoomsday andSecret Wars.[72]
Marketing
TheDoomsday subtitle, the return of the Russo brothers, and the casting of Downey as Doctor Doom were all announced at Marvel Studios' SDCC panel in July 2024. The announcement involved multiple people dressed as Doom appearing on stage, including Downey, who unmasked himself to reveal his casting to the audience.[9] Kat Bailey atIGN described the casting announcement as "one of the most dramatic reveals in recent Marvel history" and reported on mixed responses from fans, with some praising Downey's return while others thought it was a desperate move from Marvel Studios following the creative reshuffling caused by Majors's firing.[73] Charles Pulliam-Moore ofThe Verge saw the casting as "Marvel betting that it might be able to win audiences back with another massive cinematic event built around a person whose face and voice have long since become synonymous with Iron Man".[74] Other commentators also discussed the casting and mixed responses to it,[75][76][77] includingCollider's Collier Jennings who criticized the casting of a non-Romani actor considering the character's comic book heritage.[76] The announcement led to speculation about whether Downey would be playing an alternate universe variant of Tony Stark / Iron Man or if his recasting would be ignored in the film's story.[77][78]
Coinciding with the start of production in March 2025, Marvel aired a nearly five-and-a-half-hour-long livestream showing a line ofdirector's chairs with cast member names on them. A new chair was revealed approximately every 12 minutes, accompanied by music from a relevant previous Marvel project. After revealing 26 cast members, the livestream ended with an appearance by Downey and a rendition of Silvestri'sAvengers theme.[3][57] The livestream saw around 100,000 concurrent viewers on YouTube,[79] and an hour-over-hour audience growth, to become the most viewed cross-platform livestream stunt. It became the second-most trending video on YouTube with 275 million views in its first 24 hours, surpassing past livestreams for Marvel'sred carpet premieres. The livestream also accumulated 3.1 million mentions across social media, which is five times higher than the "social volume" of the first trailer forDeadpool & Wolverine. It garnered 55 distinct trending terms onX (formerly Twitter), with thehashtag "AvengersDoomsday" the top trending topic on the site for over seven hours.[57] NumerousInternet memes were also generated with each cast announcement.[79][57] Anthony D'Alessandro ofDeadline Hollywood described the stunt as a "pop cultural event".[57]Variety's Jordan Moreau and Brent Lang called the livestream a "slow-burn" and likened it to the release date reveal for theseventh season ofGame of Thrones in 2017, which saw a block of ice melt to reveal the date; both stunts were "mocked for their pace".[79] Austen Goslin ofPolygon, who was concerned about the large cast that was announced, described the livestream as "agonizingly slow [but] exceedingly fun". He enjoyed checking the stream for each new reveal and then seeing responses on social media.[80] James Whitbrook ofGizmodo said the number of viewers the livestream had "speaks to the studio's ability to maintain much of that grip it's had on pop culture over the past almost 20 years now".[81] Based on the cast members announced in the livestream, Devin Meenan of/Film believed the film could be adapting elements from the 2012 comic book crossover event "Avengers vs. X-Men" written by Bendis,Matt Fraction,Jason Aaron,Ed Brubaker, and Hickman. He also felt elements of the 2010 limited seriesDoomwar, written byJonathan Maberry, could be included. That comic depicts Doctor Doom invadingWakanda and features the X-Men.[82]
The Russo brothers and Rudd introduced footage from the film atDestination D23 in late August 2025.[83] Concept art of Doom from the film was revealed at Disney's Merchandise Expo in China the following month.[84] The expo also featured a light show centered on Doom, which featured logos for the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four, as well as a recreation of a panel from the 2015Secret Wars comic series in which Doom rips the skeleton out ofThanos's body.[85] The first trailer forDoomsday is set to be attached to screenings ofAvatar: Fire and Ash with its release on December 19, 2025, one year beforeDoomsday's scheduled release.[86]
Release
Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 18, 2026.[64] The film is expected to be released inIMAX.[87][needs update] It was originally scheduled for release on May 2, 2025,[26] but was delayed to May 1, 2026, in part due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike,[40][53] followed by another delay to the December 2026 release to allow more time for production to be completed.[64] It will be part of Phase Six of the MCU.[26]
A sequel, titledAvengers: Secret Wars, is scheduled to be released on December 17, 2027.[64] It is also being written by Waldron and McFeely,[55] and directed by the Russo brothers.[53] The film will conclude Phase Six of the MCU.[26]
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