Matthew Percefull
Marvel Entertainment announced the cast for Avengers: Doomsday in a way that has fans scratching their heads. Marvel went live on various platforms early on March 26th, promising a major announcement. The first thing you see is the back of a chair. It has a name printed on the back: Chris Hemsworth. For the next five and a half hours, fans tediously watched as the camera slowly pans from chair to chair, revealing each cast member. The stream ends with Robert Downey Jr. dramatically sitting in the last chair. The idea is a clever one on paper. The problem was that they waited 15-20 minutes between each chair. Fans found it hard to be excited when they were staring at a name they already knew would be in the film. The casting announcement had very little in terms of surprise. It ended up feeling like a waste of time that many fans are perplexed by.
The full cast of Avengers: Doomsday, includes: Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, Vanessa Kirby, Wyatt Russell, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Tenoch Huerta, Florence Pugh, Simu Liu, Kelsey Grammar, Lewis Pullman, Danny Ramirez, Joseph Quinn, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Tom Hiddleston, Patrick Stewart, Ian Mckellan, Channing Tatum, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, Pedro Pascal, and the already announced Robert Downey Jr.
Avengers: Doomsday‘s production and lead-up have been strange to say the least, and they haven’t even started filming yet. The highly anticipated team-up film was initially announced under the title Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings) was attached to direct, and the film was slated for a 2025 release date. Plans quickly shifted after a gnarly mix of creative failures, Off-screen controversies, and dissipating fan excitement. In February of 2024, Marvel dropped the Kang Dynasty subtitle and announced they were going in a different direction. Later that year, they announced Avengers: Doomsday to release in May 2026. Anthony and Joe Russo, who directed the previous two Avengers films, were attached to direct. Fans were excited by the return of the Russo brothers at the time. A less popular return was that of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. This move reeked of desperation and sparked concern around the film’s potential. More recently, a series of leaks appeared on the internet. Full pieces of concept art swept the internet in a move many have speculated was done by Disney themselves.
This change in strategy doesn’t just apply to the fifth Avengers film. The entire release strategy experienced a huge shake-up in 2024. Marvel was flooding the market with content. Since 2020, the studio has released twelve feature-length films, sixteen seasons of television, and two TV specials. This deluge of superhero stories led to what many coined as superhero fatigue. By the time they cut back, it was way too late. They already had multiple finished projects that were left to sit on the shelf for months. It also made the once tightly connected and rigorously planned universe feel like the complete opposite. Not every film is a complete dud, but even the better ones have kind of faded from memory. Will audiences remember Shang-Chi or Namor by the time they appear in Avengers: Doomsday? As the amount of content surpasses the threshold of casual viewers, Marvel has done a poor job of communicating which pieces of the story are essential viewing and which are not. This has muddled the overarching plot and stopped regular audiences from latching on like they did the last saga.
Every recent move from Marvel has been reactionary. It’s interesting to see the studio that essentially ran the film industry for a decade act so defensively. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that they are not very confident in their current product. This casting announcement is just the latest failed attempt to build anticipation. I understand that the film is hugely anticipated and likely to make a lot of money but now seems to be a strange time to be focusing so hard on it. Two Marvel films are releasing this year that are seemingly overshadowed by Avengers: Doomsday. Instead of pushing Thunderbolts* or Fantastic Four, they seem to be putting most of their marketing power towards this Avengers film. They’ve completely given up on anything creative or experimental and opted for nostalgia and fan service. 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine felt like they fully gave up on compelling stories and just started dangling toys at the audience, hoping they’d recognize them.
The only real new information to come from the castings was the official confirmation of the X-Men. These iconic characters had been teased but nothing concrete ever came of it. This cast reveals the appearance of several actors from Fox’s X-Men franchise. This should be extremely exciting, Marvel’s three most iconic superhero teams in the same film. The idea of this team-up is the dream of many Marvel fans around the world. Unfortunately, it’s hard to maintain any hype when there’s been little to no buildup to any of it. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was built on a strong continuity and consistency. The latest run of films from the studio has lacked all of this. They lack any direction and seem to be putting all of their eggs in this film’s basket. Let’s hope this film has the emotional depth that made Infinity War and Endgame so universal.
