Downey Jr. might be playing a new role, but Marvel is really getting the band(s) back together on this one. The film takes place 14 months after the events of this year’s Thunderbolts*.  So we’ve got Avengers favorites Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the new Captain America (Anthony Mackie), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Falcon (Danny Ramirez), and Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Then there’s the Wakandan contingent: Shuri as the new Black Panther (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), and Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejia).

Naturally, the Thunderbolts* (aka New Avengers) will appear: John Walker/US Agent (Wyatt Russell), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bob/Sentry (Lewis Pullman), Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). So will the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn). But we also have the original X-Men: Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), Beast (Kelsey Grammer), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), and Cyclops (James Marsden).

For good measure, Marvel threw in Gambit (Channing Tatum) and Xu Shang-Chi (Simu Liu). There will also be plenty of cameos, like the Steve Rogers appearance that was recently revealed. We can expect to see  (at least briefly) Peggy Carter, Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), among others.

Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18, 2026. Avengers: Secret Wars is currently slated for release on December 17, 2027, and will mark the conclusion of the MCU’s Phase Six.