The 14 Biggest Marvel Heroes Still Unconfirmed For Avengers: Doomsday
The trailers for Avengers: Doomsday have so far been all about who “will return” in the upcoming December release, but what about all the major superheroes (and potential villains) who haven’t been confirmed yet?
The long-running franchise has actually been fairly straight up regarding the cast of its multiverse showdown so far — perhaps suspiciously so. The casts of Thunderbolts and The Fantastic 4 were confirmed in the closing credits of their respective movies. Then came the long line of chairs that hinted at Sam Wilson, Namor, the original Fox X-Men, Robert Downey Jr., and various others. Finally, the foursome of teasers, which officially brought Shuri, Thor, and Steve Rogers into the fold.
Whether or not the Avengers: Doomsday promotional run has all been one big fake out — a row of big names that will be taken off the board in the opening act, as some expect — there are a number of notable names that have still, at the time of writing, not been fully confirmed in the upcoming movie or in next year’s Secret Wars; and given that this is probably Marvel’s last chance to roll the multiversal dice, the potential for seemingly impossible cameos and variants is basically limitless.
Either way, these are the biggest names that have so far been conspicuous by their absence.
Spider-Man
It’s strange to think, but Tom Holland’s Peter Parker still hasn’t been really confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars. The post-credits scene in Brand New Day could be read as a dead giveaway, but it was also pretty vague and open to interpretation. Might that second Spidey icon be a variant, or one of Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men, or maybe Venom or Miles Morales?
Of course, those kinds of guessing games and false flags are exactly the reason why a movie like Brand New Day is capable of banking a billion dollars at the box-office in record time. Granted, the Russos are never gonna leave a character like Spider-Man on the bench, and fans will be lining up to return their popcorn buckets if Holland’s webslinger fails to materialise in some capacity. The questions that remain are when, where and how?
The Hulk
It’s a fact as clean as the grass is green: since the first Avengers movie, all six of the core members who fought in the Battle of New York have played a role in each tentpole team-up since (and yes, I’m counting Clint for Infinity War). With Iron Man and Black Widow both no longer with us (although they, too, have a chance of resurfacing in some way), that leaves Captain America (in), Thor (in), Hawkeye (more on him in a second) and Hulk still on the board.
Due to copyright issues, Bruce Banner (at least the Mark Ruffalo version) has always had a pleasantly illusive presence in the MCU. Outside of The Avengers, he’s only really played a major part in Thor: Ragnarok and Spider-Man: Brand New Day. That the latter has come so recently would suggest he’s being primed for a Doomsday return, just as his appearance in Ragnarok led directly to the opening scene of Infinity War.
On the other hand, the last time we saw him, he was being dragged off to a psychiatric ward, having lost control of his genetic inhibitor. Will he sit out these two movies as a result? Something tells me not.
Doctor Strange & Wong
Two other A-tier Avengers who’ve yet to RSVP for the next two movies are Dr. Stephen Strange and Wong. The last time we saw Benedict Cumberbatch’s time lord, in the post-credits scene of Multiverse of Madness, he was heading off with Charlize Theron’s Clea into a multiversal portal to fix something she called an “incursion”.
That plotline was originally intended to tie in with the Kang Dynasty arc, but it’s still very much in play considering what most people are expecting from Dr. Doom in these movies — and in that kind of fight, Strange is definitely someone the Avengers will be hoping to call on. Expect both of these (and possibly even Clea) to show up sooner rather than later in Doomsday.
Scarlet Witch & Vision
Like Strange, we haven’t seen Wanda “Scarlet Witch” Maximoff since Multiverse of Madness — a movie in which she certainly lived up to the title. That psychological unraveling was, of course, a result of losing her partner and children in WandaVision in 2021.
We can at least confirm that Vision will return in VisionQuest this Autumn, or at least the all-white, not very emotional version from the end of that previous show. He’ll be joined by Tommy Maximoff, his and Wanda’s “son” from that show, whose soul was transferred into his brother’s body in Agatha All Along (and yes, I memory-holed all of this information, too.)
Wanda supposedly died at the end of Multiverse, before a flicker of magic confirmed that she definitely didn’t. Vision and Wanda, you sense, will meet again, but with everything going on with them they’d be forgiven for sitting Doomsday out.
Deadpool & Wolverine
For me, this is a clear yes for both, as well as a very unclear where and when. Logan could well pop up in Xavier’s school at the start of Doomsday, where it seems like an early skirmish is going to take place. There’s also the clear sense that Doomsday or Secret Wars will see the classic X-Men cast pass the baton to Sadie Sink and the new X-Men cast. Would the Russos be cold enough to deny us a reunion of Hugh Jackman and Famke Janssen after all these years? Surely not.
Deadpool, on the other hand, is the kind of comedic weapon that the Russos would be more than happy to make use of. Integrating him and his fourth-wall-breaking shenanigans won’t be easy, but having seamlessly introduced the Guardians of the Galaxy into the more earthbound milieu of the last Avengers movies, you sense they’ll be up for the challenge.
The Marvels
An awkwardly over-powered superhero and two sidekicks who most casual viewers won’t remember are probably not at the top of Kevin Feige’s priorities these days — so if the MCU decided to cut its losses with The Marvels and Carol Danvers, I don’t think too many fans would mind.
One snag with that suggestion is what happened in the post-credits scene of The Marvels, in which Monica Rambeau woke up in a hospital bed next to Kelsey Grammer’s Beast from the X-Men. Knowing that Grammer is already on the docket for the Doomsday cast suggests we’ll have at least a little bit of Rambeau, if not necessarily her fellow Marvels.
Hawkeye & Kate Bishop
As mentioned above, Hawkeye is the only living core Avenger who has yet to surface on-screen this year in some capacity. He’s also a character who’s had roughly three arc-closing storylines already in the MCU: firstly retiring to live with his family in Age of Ultron; then getting dragged out of retirement for his killing spree and later retribution in Endgame; and finally his passing of the baton (or in his case, bow) to Kate Bishop in the charming Hawkeye TV show.
That 2021 series was part of a wider plan to replace the Avengers with a younger and more diverse team, each with basically the same powers as the one who came before, but there frankly wasn’t enough interest in those shows for the concept to work long-term. Bishop, as played by Hailee Steinfeld (who was excellent again in Sinners last year), was the exception to the rule, so a return in Doomsday would be welcome, if not entirely certain at this point.
Nick Fury
The last OG Avenger who we’ve still got no idea about is the man who started it all: Nick Fury
Samuel L. Jackson’s one-eyed agent was basically off Earth from as long ago as Tony Stark’s funeral all the way up to the Secret Invasion TV show — his “appearance” in Spider-Man: Far From Home notwithstanding.
A micro-cameo would be consistent with recent Fury appearances in Avengers movies — he popped up in both Infinity War and Endgame, but the combined screen time was probably less than a minute. The 'Fury goes to space' stuff we glimpsed since then belonged to a storyline that Marvel appears to have largely abandoned at this point.
Whatever happens, I’m sure the Russos will find a way to get him in for continuity. At this stage, it would kinda be rude not to.
