Avengers: Doomsday is looking like a ’00s X-Men reunion — Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan are back

Via a slow, four-hours-and-counting stream of names on the backs of director’s chairs, Marvel Studios has announced that Patrick Stewart is on the cast list for the Russo brothers’ upcoming MCU movie Avengers: Doomsday. The stream, still in progress, has now announced that Ian McKellen and Alan Cumming are along for the ride as well.

The announcement stream is only revealing actor names, not roles. It’s easy to infer that Patrick Stewart will be playing the role of mutant leader Professor X — he did, after all, reprise his ’00s turn in the Fox X-Men movies as an alternate universe version of the character in the MCU’s Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness — and any argument to the contrary was dispelled by the reveal of McKellen’s name. McKellen memorably portrayed Professor X’s opposite number, Magneto, in a series of X-Men movies, though McKellen hasn’t returned to the role since 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. Cumming, for his part, played the X-Man Nightcrawler in one film: 2003’s X-Men: United.

Fans have waited years for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to feature characters from Marvel Comics’ legendary X-Men silo, and the waiting only got harder after Marvel Studios recouped the film rights to the X-Men when the Disney company acquired 20th Century Fox Studios. Whether these folks are on hand to play these characters for keeps in the MCU, or they’re just appearing in cameos as alternate-universe elder statesmen, clearing the way for the MCU’s future X-Men film franchise, the announcement of their involvement says one thing: Marvel has a plan for the X-Men, and it’s first steps are (hopefully) finally here.

The next MCU movie to hit theaters will be Thunderbolts*, on May 2. Avengers: Doomsday is currently scheduled for release on May 1, 2026.