MCU’s 'Avengers: Doomsday' brings back legacy X-Men — here’s who returns

Fox’s X-Men aren’t just popping in for cameos this time around. A slate of legacy mutants is reportedly being lined up to cross into Marvel ’s next Avengers event, with a mix of team leaders, stealth specialists, and fan-favorite scene-stealers in the mix.

Who’s reportedly back

• Patrick Stewart — Professor Charles Xavier
• Ian McKellen — Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto
• James Marsden — Scott Summers / Cyclops
• Alan Cumming — Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler
• Rebecca Romijn — Raven Darkholme / Mystique
• Kelsey Grammer — Dr. Hank McCoy / Beast
• Channing Tatum — Remy LeBeau / Gambit

The plan, centered on a Multiverse-collapsing Avengers crossover widely referred to as Avengers: Doomsday, would reunite the franchise ’s elder statesmen with a fresh wave of MCU heroes. Stewart’s Professor X is positioned as the moral center and chief diplomat, while McKellen’s Magneto brings the kind of force and conviction that can turn a battlefield on its head.

For Marsden, it ’s a long-awaited chance to put Cyclops where he belongs — out front, calling shots — after his tenure was cut short in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. Cumming’s Nightcrawler, whose acrobatic White House sequence opened 2003’s X2 with a jolt, would add blink-and-you-miss-it rescue work to the chaos.

Romijn’s Mystique restores the franchise’s blue-skinned master of disguise to stealth duty, a wild card in any plan. Grammer’s Beast balances brains and brawn, and Tatum’s kinetic-card–flinging Gambit — finally realized on screen after years of start-and-stop development — brings swagger and explosive visuals.

Kelsey Grammer’s Beast already resurfaced in The Marvels’ mid-credits scene.

Already seeded in the MCU

Several of these comebacks have been teased on screen. Stewart returned as an Illuminati variant of Professor X in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Grammer’s Beast showed up in 2023’s The Marvels mid-credits stinger. And Tatum’s Gambit finally took a bow in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine , giving fans a first taste of the Cajun card-slinger in action.

Cumming last appeared as Nightcrawler in X2, a one-and-done turn that still ranks among the franchise’s most memorable. Romijn anchored Mystique in the original 2000s trilogy, and Marsden’s Cyclops — long the team’s field leader in the comics — never got a full-fledged showcase before his abrupt exit in The Last Stand.

Marvel has not publicly announced a full cast or confirmed “Avengers: Doomsday” as the official title. What is on screen so far: Stewart’s Professor X in 2022’s Doctor Strange sequel, Grammer’s Beast in 2023’s The Marvels, and Tatum’s Gambit in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine.