For anybody who remembers ready round on Fb Stay for hours to observe a large block of ice soften simply to disclose the premiere date of a brand new season of “Recreation of Thrones,” at this time Marvel spent an obscenely lengthy period of time getting folks to observe the backs of an more and more lengthy line of chairs simply to see who was within the forged for its upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday” film.
At the very least the “Recreation of Thrones” factor was interactive; it requested folks to kind in “FIRE” to get the factor to soften.
Beginning at 8 a.m. PT this morning, Marvel rolled out a livestream through which the studio slowly — VERY slowly — counted down each star who would seem in its upcoming team-up movie, panning ever so barely to the best to disclose the again of a brand new on-set chair, all arrange in a row. How massive was this sound stage?
Followers — and genuinely lots of them, greater than 100,000 at nearly any given time on YouTube and notching over 9 million views on X — waited as a lot as quarter-hour in between the digital camera lastly transferring and revealing a brand new identify. The endless flurry of messages within the reside chat alongside the YouTube stream was form of hypnotic.
It was so lengthy, in truth, that Marvel’s cousin Hulu and its “Solely Murders within the Constructing” managed to squeeze in a troll job, with the present tweeting out a virtually similar picture of Renée Zellweger’s identify becoming a member of the forged (Bridget Jones would make a terrific Avenger).
For anybody ready to see any precise butts in seats? Too dangerous. There have been no named stars readily available, till the very finish when Robert Downey Jr., who was already introduced to be returning to the MCU to play the villain Dr. Doom, took his seat. Sometimes, there was music within the background. And even essentially the most informal Marvel followers might have guessed half the names that have been in the end confirmed. (We think about this listing nonetheless omits a bunch of cameos.)
The livestream lasted a grand whole of 5 and a half hours, and ultimately, revealed 27 names. We simply hope “Avengers: Doomsday” itself isn’t so long as the livestream was.
This got here after Marvel and administrators Joe and Anthony Russo, who’re returning to the MCU after their “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019, staged a helluva announcement to disclose the return of Downey to the franchise. His reveal at Comedian-Con (seen above), with Downey wearing inexperienced ripping off a masks and brandishing his arms like within the authentic “Iron Man,” was immediately iconic and sparked a flurry of hypothesis about the way forward for the MCU.
To be honest, these forged chairs did embody just a few real surprises. A superb chunk of OG “X-Males” forged members (revealed a stable 4 hours into the livestream) have been all introduced to return, together with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Kelsey Grammer, Rebecca Romjin, and James Marsden. Different curious casting included the return of Tenoch Huerta Mejía, who performed the villain Namor in “Black Panther: Wakanda Perpetually.” Simu Liu is again for the primary time for the reason that launch of “Shang-Chi,” and Tom Hiddleston is again since his stint in “Loki.”
Maybe extra notable have been the names that weren’t revealed on these chairs. No Tom Holland but forward of “Spider-Man 4,” no Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, or Anna Paquin amongst these OG “X-Males,” and no Ryan Reynolds or Hugh Jackman after they first formally joined the MCU with final yr’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Although Channing Tatum, who lastly obtained to play Gambit in that movie however by no means did within the authentic movies, was among the many forged. Once more, no official characters have been tagged together with any of those, so possibly there’s another enjoyable multiverse casting available.
Right here’s the complete listing of names, within the order through which they have been introduced, in case you didn’t have 5 hours to spend on this occasion at this time: Chris Hemsworth, Vanessa Kirby, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, Wyatt Russell, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Simu Liu, Florence Pugh, Kelsey Grammer, Lewis Pullman, Danny Ramirez, Joseph Quinn, David Harbour, Winston Duke, Hannah John-Kamen, Tom Hiddleston, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romjin, James Marsden, Channing Tatum, Pedro Pascal, Robert Downey Jr. It ended with a short title card saying the movie was now in manufacturing.
“Avengers: Doomsday” opens in theaters Might 1, 2026 and, within the meantime, Marvel has three extra films slated to reach earlier than then, together with “Thunderbolts*,” “Unbelievable 4: First Steps,” and a still-untitled Marvel film that continues to be on the theatrical slate for February 13, 2026. It should then be adopted by “Spider-Man 4” from Sony coming July 31, 2026, one other untitled Marvel film in November ’26, and culminate with “Avengers: Secret Wars” on Might 7, 2027.