Marvel is BACK and never left! Reacting to Avengers: Doomsday Casting Announcements

One thing that’s kind of amazing about this entire set up is that there are at least 3 giant (in terms of popularity scale) superhero teams in one film and the title of the film only has the name of one of those teams.

Yet, we’ve got the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four slated to be in Avengers: Doomsday. So far, all of the X-Men are from the Original Fox Trilogy, and the only Fantastic Four are the new ones.

Since when did the Avengers become the biggest name out of all of them?

From Vulture.com, here is each actor named to be in the film and who we expect them to play:

Chris Hemsworth, Thor

Vanessa Kirby, Sue Storm/Invisible Woman

Anthony Mackie, Sam Wilson/Captain America

Sebastian Stan, Bucky Barnes

Marvel Marketing has SO much fun with Ant-Man

Letitia Wright, Shuri/Black Panther

Paul Rudd, Scott Lang/Ant-Man

Wyatt Russell, John Walker/U.S. Agent

Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Namor

Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ben Grimm/the Thing

Simu Liu, Shaun/Shang-Chi

Florence Pugh, Yelena Belova/Black Widow

Kelsey Grammer, Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast

Lewis Pullman, Bob Reynolds/Sentry

Danny Ramirez, Joaquín Torres/Falcon

Joseph Quinn, Johnny Storm/Human Torch

David Harbour, Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian

Winston Duke, M’Baku

Hannah John-Kamen, Ava Starr/Ghost

Tom Hiddleston, Loki Laufeyson

Patrick Stewart, Charles Xavier/Professor X

Ian McKellen, Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto

Alan Cumming, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler

Rebecca Romijn, Raven Darkhölme/Mystique

James Marsden, Scott Summers/Cyclops

Channing Tatum, Remy LeBeau/Gambit

Pedro Pascal, Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic

Robert Downey Jr., Doctor Doom

Marvel’s Chokehold On Us Never Ended

While there are definitely some casting shocks, and we are definitely assuming everyone’s roles, for the most part, most of the casting wasn’t actually shocking. Yet over 5 million people watched over 5 hours of names on chairs to see who was cast. Heck, even the people hating it couldn’t shut up about it!

Marvel is making a damning case for the fact that superhero fatigue has never been a thing. However, they are having to learn what is a thing.

What is a thing is the surprises-only tactics Marvel used to pride themselves on and engage in lost their awe factor years ago. At minimum, since Endgame ended. With everything going on in the world right now, particularly so much distrust, audiences want to know what they are getting point-blank so they can really feel like they trust the product they are getting will bring them joy. Plus, Marvel still dealt with enough leaks and spoilers. 

Props to current Marvel marketing for realizing that in order to get fans excited and invested again, they have to show people why they should be excited and invested again. Marvel has to show that they know what the people want and are able to give it to them - all while still telling great stories with great casts, themes, visuals, and so much more.

And honestly? A bunch of chairs with names on them and Robert Downey Jr at the end? That’s ALL it took to get 5 million people excited again??? 

Marvel’s chokehold on audiences never ended.

It’s like a long-term relationship that got sour over time with distance and the busyness of life; all we wanted was to feel like the spark was back again!

Now it’s up to The Russos, cast, and entire crew of Avengers: Doomsday to deliver what marketing is promising all of us.

Return of the Blue and More

The most shocking news with these announcements was that two people who were infamously distressed with playing their past characters were announced as returning; and after over a decade!

Alan Cumming and Rebecca Romijn are returning as Nightcrawler and Mystique respectively. My biggest questions: how much is Marvel paying them, how large of roles will they actually have in the film, and will Mystique have her Destiny??

In case you don’t know, in the comics, Mystique is married to Destiny, one of the most powerful mutants and seers of the future ever. Yes, I could call her a psychic, but as Destiny says, her mutant power is to see potential and possible futures; she can never see a single one that is 100% coming true. 

With all the OG X-Men coming back, I definitely think there’s going to be time travel and such involved in this film too; definitely an alternate universe or two, particularly with us last seeing Beast and Binary at the end of The Marvels, in the different universe Monica Rambeau ended up in! All of which could lend itself to Destiny’s mutant abilities. Time Travel, Alternate Universes, and Alternate Futures/Fates are more intertwined than we may admit or understand.  

MOM, did you go binary too??

I’m very excited to see characters like Namor, M’Baku, Shuri, Yelena Belova, Shang-Chi, and more again! And of course, BEYOND excited for my X-men, if you couldn’t tell…

The Future of The X-Men

It seems Marvel can’t let go of the OG X-Men, and who can blame them? Yet, let’s face it, Tiger: at some point, Marvel needs to find an all-new X-Men cast that the majority are invested in. They’ve had multiple interpretations of many characters; some well-loved and others not; yet none of them have ever achieved the stature that any of the OG X-Men cast have. 

Will this be the OG X-Men’s actual last stand? Is Marvel actually preparing for what needs to happen for the X-Men to survive in film for future generations, or are they holding onto the nostalgia as long as they can? 

Where Are The Women?

People want to know what they are getting.. but apparently it's not women??

Maybe Marvel is saving more of the women as a surprise. 

This could be happening for multiple different reasons though; one could be that many of the other women are so beloved that they are best to save for a surprise for a final PR pull to get people to see the film. 

Another, though, could be that Marvel is trying to avoid the peril of incels and other misogynistic dirt bags. By advertising mostly men, they draw that large audience back to the theaters for Doomsday, getting them all excited. Then, in order to avoid completely losing the audience with basic empathy and kindness, they remind us “look, more women are still in it” either right before the film comes out, or after when we see the women in the film. 

Sadly, it would make sense after many women-led films and shows Marvel made were review bombed by incels and misogynistic dipshits. It’s messed up how their voices have become louder than people with basic empathy and kindness.

Yes, I'm being direct at assholes today because going high did not work (Sorry 420).

It’s even more telling that Marvel specifically didn't advertise, or potentially even cast at all, women that have been attacked more so than others; women like Brie Larson, Iman Vellani, Teyonah Parris, and Tatiana Maslany. Instead, other women who audiences enjoy, like Florence Pugh, or who audiences don’t remember as well, like Hannah John-Kamen, are advertised and cast.

Yet, beloved women such as Elizabeth Olsen and Kathryn Hahn are currently left out. I’m anticipating at least one of these two to be a surprise, if not other beloved women characters too.

Either way, the way women are/are not marketed for this film and in it or not speaks a lot to how our American culture is right now and the political/socio economic climate we are battling.

The World Needs Superheroes

The fantastic revitalization of the MCU happened all within 5 hours in 1 day this week. That’s all it took. People still want, and need, superheroes.

Avengers: Doomsday is set to be a film with a star-studded cast, more cameos than ever, and all the crowd pleasing in the world. My biggest hope is they still tell a great story and maintain the integrity of what makes superhero movies great: the way they bring us all together with humanity, empathy, and kindness.

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