AFTER THE CASTING CALL, IT LOOKS LIKE ‘AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY’ IS ADAPTING THIS COMICS STORYLINE (AND I THINK IT’S PERFECT)
Like most people, I tuned into the grand cast reveal for Avengers: Doomsday, which was done in a rather unique way: bringing out the chairs of everyone who's appearing. The Thunderbolts, The Fantastic Four, and even Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) are slated to show up at some point in Avengers: Doomsday, but the biggest reveal had to be that characters from Fox's X-Men movies would be in the film as well! Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Rebecca Romijin, Alan Cumming, Channing Tatum and James Marsden will all be part of Avengers:Doomsday's cast, which all but proves that Joe and Anthony Russo are aiming to deliver an event that matches their work on Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. It also confirms a lingering suspicion I've had: Avengers: Doomsday will pull partial inspiration from the Avengers VS X-Menmaxiseries, pitting Earth's Mightiest Heroes and the Children of the Atom against each other.
'Avengers vs X-Men' Saw the Avengers and the X-Men Clashing Over the Phoenix Force
Avengers VS X-Men begins when the Phoenix Force is shown hurtling toward Earth, leading the X-Men to believe that it could restart a dying mutantkind and the Avengers to be on their toes, given the history the Phoenix Force has had with Earth. Both groups soon clash over the cosmic force, leading to some intense confrontations. Cyclops takes on Captain America. Storm and the Black Panther find themselves divided, especially since they're married and on opposite sides. Wolverine, having served on both the Avengers and the X-Men, is further torn by the fact that the Phoenix Force reminds him of Jean Grey. It was a pretty big comic, and what hooked me is that an all star roster of creators was brought in to work on it — Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, Jason Aaron and Ed Brubaker, all superstar Marvel writers, contributed to the story while artists Olivier Coipel, Adam Kubert and John Romita Jr. skillfully illustrated the title clash.
While Avengers VS X-Men is a big storyline, I know the Russos and Stephen McFeely are probably going to take a different approach from the page. For starters, the Phoenix Force probably won't play into the equation (and that's for the best, since it tends to mostly work in animated form.) Secondly, there's another story that is shaping Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel Avengers: Secret Wars — 2015's Secret Wars, which was also penned by Hickman and illustrated by Esad Ribic. The 2015 Secret Wars kicks off when an interdimensional incursion brings together two different universes; judging from how The Marvelsestablished that Grammer's Beast was in a different dimension, and Deadpool & Wolverine saw Tatum's Gambit returning to his home universe, it's safe to say that the universe of Fox's X-Men films, or one suspiciously close to it, is headed for a collision course with the MCU.
'Avengers: Doomsday' Looks Like It Wants To Pay Tribute to Fox's X-Men Films, And That's Amazing
Bringing back the majority of Fox's X-Men cast is a clear sign to me that the Russos aren't just aiming to close another chapter of the MCU, but one major chapter in the modern era of superhero films. X-Men, alongside Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and Blade, is considered to be the birth of the modern superhero movie. Before he became the head of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige was an intern for the late, great Richard Donner and his wife, Lauren Shuler Donner, who produced the X-Men films. Feige has said that Donner's Supermanis the film he watches before every new MCU project, and given that Donner himself launched the superhero movie as we know it, I think that it's fitting that Feige will help close the book on another milestone moment. I also believe that Avengers: Doomsday will offer some tearjerking moments, especially if the X-Men's universe is in danger. I grew up with these films, and in a way they were my introduction to comics, especially since my dad gave me a copy of Giant-Size X-Men #1 for my 13th birthday. Seeing them on the screen for one last time is bound to make me bawl even harder than when Thanos snapped away the universe.
If the sheer scope of Avengers: Doomsday's cast wasn't enough to get me excited, the fact that it might adapt Avengers VS X-Men definitely is. While I do love the Avengers, the X-Men were my first superheroes, so part of me is going to be rooting for them for every moment when they're on screen.
Avengers: Doomsday premieres in theaters on May 1, 2026.
2025-03-27T10:39:13Z
