Magneto Is 85 Years Old, but Marvel and Disney Believe He’s the Only Solution to Save Their Struggling MCU

Disney and Marvel revealed a surprise announcement on social media platforms: A five-and-a-half-hour video introducing the full cast of the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, scheduled for release on May 1, 2026. The night’s big (relative) surprise: The entire cast of the X-Men movies is returning.

The announcements. The video showed the backs of chairs listing the names of the actors appearing in Doomsday, including a final, personal appearance by Robert Downey Jr., who will portray Dr. Doom. These were the night’s announcements:

• Chris Hemsworth (Thor)
• Anthony Mackie (Captain America)
• Vanessa Kirby (Susan Storm)
• Paul Rudd (Ant-Man)
• Florence Pugh (Yelena)
• Tenoch Huerta (Namor)
• Simu Liu (Shang-Chi)
• Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier)
• Letitia Wright (Black Panther)
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Thing)
• Kelsey Grammer (The Beast, who previously appeared in a post-credits cameo in The Marvels)
• Lewis Pullman (Sentinel)
• Danny Ramirez (Falcon)
• Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm)
• David Harbour (Red Guardian)
• Winston Duke (M’Baku)
• Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost)
• Tom Hiddleston (Loki)
• Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier)
• Ian McKellen (Magneto)
• Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler)
• Rebecca Romijn (Mystique, pre-Jennifer Lawrence version)
• James Marsden (Cyclops)
• Channing Tatum (Gambit)
• Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards)

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Some absences. The absences are just as important as the names that appeared. There’s no sign of Chris Evans, who is rumored to reappear as Captain America in Doomsday. Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange are also missing, likely signaling a decision to separate the magical side of Marvel. Sony’s MCU characters, including Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, are absent, as are living Avengers like Hawkeye. Key mutants, including Wolverine, are also missing.

The mutants are back. It has long been known that mutants would return to the MCU, both passively (Disney’s purchase of Fox reclaimed the Fantastic Four and X-Men) and actively (cameos by the Beast, a multiversal Xavier in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Logan and Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine). What wasn’t as predictable was that Marvel and Disney would use the X-Men as they are—the ones from the movies that began in 2000.

Core value. The X-Men movies, despite their uneven quality (tellingly, the best of them is arguably X-Men: First Class, with a completely different cast of mutants who are absent here, even though their youth would have made more sense), have undeniable foundational value. These films, along with director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series, helped massively popularize superheroes in cinema. That’s why Marvel, in its constant search for nostalgic appeal, turns to them for a “return to the origins” comparable to Spider-Man: No Way Home.

A plan with cracks. The strategy is overtly nostalgic and appeals to longtime fans. That’s the only explanation for bringing back heroes whose moment has arguably passed, both aesthetically and narratively. It also raises questions about casting choices—characters like Nightcrawler or the Beast, known for superhuman agility, are portrayed by actors in their sixties or seventies. Marsden is 51, and Romijn is 52. McKellen is an icon, but he’s 85. Are they the best choice for these roles, or will their appearances be merely symbolic?

Nostalgia as a bargaining chip. While the X-Men make sense as an addition to the MCU and as an alternative group to the Avengers, as they do in the comics, Disney’s strategy is clear: prioritize nostalgia over narrative logic. More important than whether an 85-year-old villain has staying power is how emotionally attached audiences are to these characters—if not to this particular incarnation of them.

Image | Gage Skidmore

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