After Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, it’s time for the MCU to fully retire Fox’s X-Men movies. The extensive cast announcement for Avengers: Doomsday promised a bounty of characters from the MCU timeline and beyond. Perhaps the most surprising were several actors from Fox’s X-Men universe, and while this is certainly exciting, I think it’s time Marvel finally put them to rest.
Marvel Studios is ramping up excitement for Avengers: Doomsday with multiple character-focused teasers, each spotlighting a different corner of the MCU and its multiverse. The first surprised many with Chris Evans’ shock return as Steve Rogers, with the second depicting Chris Hemsworth’s Thor. However, it was the third Avengers: Doomsday teaser that ignited the most excitement.
It featured Patrick Stewart’s Professor X and Ian McKellen’s Magneto. It ends on a particularly striking note: James Marsden’s Cyclops (in a comic accurate suit) unleashing a massive optic blast at an unseen enemy. On the surface, this is undeniably exciting, but it suggests a risky plan for the MCU’s future and its mutant movies.
Marvel Is Bringing Back Actors From Fox’s X-Men Movies For Avengers: Doomsday
The MCU has confirmed numerous legacy actors returning from Fox’s X-Men era for Avengers: Doomsday. Xavier, Magneto, and Cyclops are the only ones to appear on-screen so far. However, the long-form cast announcement also confirmed Kelsey Grammer’s Beast (who previously appeared in The Marvels), Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler, and Rebecca Romijn’s Mystique.
It also confirmed Channing Tatum’s Gambit, who was introduced in Deadpool & Wolverine after his solo project was stuck in development Hell for years. There’s also heavy speculation surrounding characters not yet confirmed. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine seems almost inevitable after his MCU debut in Deadpool & Wolverine. Other rumors suggest Dafne Keen’s X-23, first seen in Logan, will also appear.
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One fun further theory suggests the Sentinels will appear in some way, with their robotic feet spotted in the X-Mansion rubble during the Doomsday teaser. Rumors also swirl around Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey or Halle Berry’s Storm; partly because they would be logical next choices as iconic alumni, but also because there is a distinct lack of female X-Men heroes in the current ensemble.
While this approach certainly generates instant hype, it also highlights a growing concern. The deeper Marvel goes into resurrecting the Fox X-Men, the harder it becomes to meaningfully move beyond them. Furthermore, it speaks to a tiresome trend that could do more damage than good.
The MCU Can’t Rely On Nostalgia Forever
Nostalgia has become one of Marvel Studios’ most reliable tools in recent years, but it’s also a finite resource. Bringing back beloved actors like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, despite their perfect superhero endings, with now the X-Men cast, only works because it taps into emotional investment built over decades. However, even the most devoted viewers have limits.
Recent reactions suggest that some audiences are already feeling that fatigue. Casting Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom and revisiting Steve Rogers have sparked as much skepticism as excitement. Deadpool & Wolverine leaned fully into nostalgia, and while it was largely embraced, it was framed as a farewell – a celebratory goodbye to the Fox Marvel era.
That framing matters. Audiences didn’t respond because they wanted the past endlessly revived, but because they wanted closure, which it offered neatly. Stretching that goodbye across Doomsday, its sequel, and potentially beyond risks cheapening the impact. What once felt like a respectful sendoff could start to feel like creative hesitation.
If Marvel continues relying on legacy characters to prop up major events, it also risks diminishing both Fox’s X-Men legacy and the MCU’s forward momentum. Nostalgia works best as punctuation, not as the entire sentence. Hopefully, the MCU will appreciate this and recast the X-Men shortly after Secret Wars.
Marvel Needs To Relaunch The X-Men In The Mutant Saga
Marvel Studios already has the perfect opportunity to move on. Kevin Feige has confirmed that the saga following the Multiverse Saga will be the Mutant Saga, positioning the X-Men as the foundation of the MCU’s next era. This should be a clean break, not an extension of what came before.
For years, speculation suggested Secret Wars would be used to introduce a universe where mutants already exist, before merging realities and integrating them into Earth-616. This approach would elegantly explain their absence and allow Marvel to rebuild the X-Men from the ground up. Originally, that implied a full recast and a younger generation of actors.
Hugh Jackman’s return as Wolverine complicated those expectations. The subsequent wave of legacy casting for Doomsday only intensified that uncertainty. But there’s only so much nostalgia available, and even less left to mine once Secret Wars ends. Nostalgia mining is particularly unnecessary with the X-Men, as they are more than just a superhero team: they’re an entire ecosystem.
They can support multiple franchises, tones, and age ratings, from child-friendly adventures to R-rated stories. Locking that potential behind legacy movie continuity would be an unnecessary creative limitation. To truly thrive, the MCU needs to let the Fox X-Men rest, honor them properly, and then build something new and gloriously expansive.
- Movie(s)
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X-Men (2000), X2, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
- First Film
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X-Men (2000)
- TV Show(s)
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X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-Men ’97 (2024)
- Video Game(s)
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X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), X2: Wolverine’s Revenge (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994)
- Character(s)
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Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Phoenix, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Morph, Nightcrawler, Havok, Banshee, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Cable, X-23
- Comic Release Date
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213035,212968
