Summary

Marvel is bringing back older X-Men actors for Avengers: Doomsday, raising concerns about mutants in the MCU.
X-Men '97 shows Marvel can mix nostalgia and new ideas successfully, unlike Doomsday's reliance on old actors.
Uncertainty looms over the fate of Marvel's next generation of mutants as classic X-Men actors return.

Millions of people watched a seemingly neverending live stream that Marvel Studios put out, slowly listing various names of actors set to appear in 2026's Avengers: Doomsday. A bunch of the usual suspects were listed (Anthony Mackie's Captain America, Paul Rudd's Ant-Man, and Sebastian Stan's Winter Soldier, to name a few) along with some genuinely surprising names like Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Namor and Channing Tatum as Gambit.

However, the most surprising collection of names had to be the glut of original X-Men trilogy cast members who are coming out of the woodwork for the latest Avengers romp. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, and Kelsey Grammer have all been confirmed to reprise their roles from 20th Century Fox's original X-Men franchise of films. While some fans might be excited to see these faces suit up again in the MCU, it certainly doesn't bode well for the cinematic future of everyone's favorite mutant team.

Marvel Is Bringing Several Older X-Men Back Into The Fold

How Much Nostalgia-Bait Can One Fanbase Handle?

When Disney bought 20th Century Fox back in 2019, they gained the film rights to the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and Deadpool, among others. Deadpool finally came to the MCU in last year's uber-successful Deadpool & Wolverine, and Marvel's first family is set to join him in this year's The Fantastic Four: First Steps. It hasn't been so simple a transition for Marvel's merry band of mutants.

Patrick Stewart cameoed in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as a version of Charles Xavier, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever technically set up Namor as a mutant (though you could be forgiven for forgetting this), and Ms. Marvel set up Kamala Khan as a mutant before the comic books did the same (she used to identify with the Inhumans, but their on the outs popularity-wise these days). Kelsey Grammer's Beast appeared at the very end of The Marvels, while Deadpool & Wolverine was filled to the brim with mutants like Cassandra Nova, Gambit, X-23, and more, but none of these are mutants of the MCU's main universe, so why would the fanbase get all hyped up about them?

With Avengers: Doomsday, it seems Marvel Studios is simply doubling down on bringing mutants from years past to the MCU, following in the wake of Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds. Why bother setting up a whole new team of mutants when people will simply accept the one who debuted 25 years ago instead? It's so much simpler than doing actual legwork.

X-Men '97 Proves That Marvel Studios Can Get The Mutants Right

But, You Know, They'd Have To Actually Try...

What makes this all so aggravating is that X-Men '97 exists. Yeah, it piggybacks off of the 1990s X-Men animated series, but that doesn't mean it's scant on bringing new ideas to the table while adapting classic mutant storylines from the comics. Fans got to see Gambit charge Wolverine's claws, for goodness' sake. How cool is that? Marvel Animation proved you can have your cake and eat it too by playing to nostalgia and upending the status quo at the same time.

Did X-Men '97 burn through classic storylines such as "Inferno" and "Fatal Attractions" a little too quickly? Sure, but at least it did a solid enough job of adapting those storylines into its own overarching tale. Nightcrawler didn't just show up because it would be cool to see Nightcrawler... He actually had things to do. We got to see him fight with swords!

What Does All This Mean For The Next Class Of Marvel Mutants?

Or Are We Just Never Going To Get A Proper X-Men Reboot?

For those keeping track at home, we've now had four different sending-off parties for various X-Men and X-Men adjacent characters over the years. X-Men: Days of Future Past served as a goodbye to the cast of the original X-Men movies and reset the timeline in the process. Then, with Logan, the tandem of Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart got a separate sendoff movie (which made sense as they were the leads of the franchise up to that point). In 2019, Dark Phoenix ended the second phase of Fox's X-Men films with a massive dud. Lastly, 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine provided closure to numerous Fox-based Marvel characters, complete with a teary-eyed montage over the end credits.

Avengers: Doomsday—despite being an Avengers movie centered around a Fantastic Four villain—is, against all odds, shaping up to be yet another farewell for the classic X-Men actors. Or is it? Because Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, and Dafne Keen's X-23 are all jumping around in the MCU now. Channing Tatum's Gambit and Kelsey Grammer's Beast are coming back after small cameos in other MCU projects. Who's to say a bunch of these X-Men and others who have yet to be announced aren't going to be the main mutant team going forward?

What does that mean for mutants like Namor and Ms. Marvel? Well, Namor is an anti-hero/villain who is only super popular with the most diehard of Marvel nerds. And Ms. Marvel is rumored to be joining the Champions/Young Avengers project that Marvel has been kicking around for years now. Casting gossip for a younger generation of X-Men has been ramping up for a while, but there is nothing set in stone about a new X-Men flick coming any time soon.

So, what is Marvel Studios doing with the X-Men? We don't have much of an idea at this point and if we're being honest, it doesn't seem like they have much of one either.

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