The Russo brothers have shared a teasing photo from the Avengers: Doomsday set, alongside the caption: “look hard.”
The monochrome image, below, shows one of the brothers sat in a director’s chair facing away from the camera, surrounded by objects that look to have been carefully positioned to resemble a series of letters.
If this sounds familiar, well, the Russo Brothers shared a very similar photo — monochrome, with one of the brothers in a director’s chair, surrounding by objects that look to resemble letters — with the exact same caption back in September 2018, during the production of Avengers: Endgame.
Back then, fans deduced the movie’s name from the objects in the photo, which had been positioned to resemble the letters A and E. But we already know the name of Avengers: Doomsday now — so, what are the Russos up to this time?
Discussing the image on reddit, fans believe there’s an obvious A and X on either side of the new photo, with potentially a V shape in the middle. What could this mean? Well, many have surmised that the photo is teasing an “AvX” battle — Avengers v X-Men — which we already know is a strong possibility.
Of course, Marvel has officially announced numerous members of the Fox-era X-Men films as part of the Avengers: Doomsday cast, though the exact nature of their role in the movie’s plot hasn’t been disclosed. All we know for certain is that Patrick Stewart will once again reprise his role as Professor X, alongside Kelsey Grammer’s Beast, James Marsden’s Cyclops, Rebecca Romijn’s Mystique, and Ian McKellen’s Magneto.
The Most Surprising Avengers and Marvel Characters Not Announced for Doomsday
Despite five hours of streamed casting announcements, there are still several characters and actors fans are surprised won’t be in Avengers: Doomsday.
Some we knew about – such as Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange – but the following omissions are notable given the cosmic cross-over nature of what’s shaping up to be an Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four cinematic extravaganza.
Missing Avengers
No Spider-Man (not that anyone can remember who Peter Parker is now, mind you), no Hulk, no Hawkeye, no Nick Fury, no Rhodey (the real one we found out about in Secret Invasion). Not even Pepper Potts or Happy Hogan to tag along for old times’ sake. And while Captain Carter was reportedly in the mix at one point, Hayley Atwell wasn’t among those announced today.
X-Men X-Ceptions
No Hugh Jackman/Wolverine, no Halle Berry/Storm, no Famke Janssen/Jean Grey, no Anna Paquin/Rogue, no Ryan Reynolds/Deadpool. Ditto Colossus, Iceman, or any of the First Class incarnations of the X-Men. Oh, and no New Mutants either (remember them???).
Asgard, Where Art Thou?
While Chris Hemsworth’s Thor was the first announced cast member of this particular Avengers lineup, none of his fellow Asgardians – whom he split from at the end of Thor: Love and Thunder – seem to be involved save for the Loki Variant. So no Valkyrie, Korg, Miek or Lady Sif. Maybe his adopted daughter Love will show up though? And we’ll see if Zeus or Hercules ever do catch up with Thor despite what was teased in the Love and Thunder post-credits scene.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Star-Lord’s return has been previously teased at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, so his inclusion in the Avengers ranks for Doomsday seemed likely. But alas neither Star-Lord nor any of the new Guardians lineup introduced in Vol. 3 – Rocket, Groot, Kraglin, Cosmo, Adam, Phyla, and Blurp – are part of this movie.
The Marvels
Captain Marvel’s importance in Endgame would have suggested that, as one of the most powerful Avengers, she would be in Doomsday. But with The Marvels tanking at the box office, none of those characters – Ms. Marvel, Spectrum, Binary, or even Nick Fury – were announced for Doomsday. This is all the more curious as we know Binary ended up in the X-Men universe with Kelsey Grammer’s Beast, who will be in the movie. In fact, there’s a noticeable lack of female cast members overall in Avengers: Doomsday…
Missing the Magic
While Benedict Cumberbatch did say his Doctor Strange will be in Secret Wars but not Doomsday, it’s weird that such a cosmic event wouldn’t see the MCU’s reigning Sorcerer Supreme, Wong, show up. (We can assume Doc Strange and Charlize Theron’s Clea are off galavanting on some other plane as the events of Doomsday play out.) No Scarlet Witch or Agatha Harkness either.
Disney Plus Minus
There’s a decided lack of Disney+ show characters in Avengers: Doomsday. So no Daredevil, Punisher, Vision, Sylvie, Moon Knight, Echo, She-Hulk, Werewolf by Night, Agent Mobius or the TVA.
Quantumania Fallout?
Given the dismal box office and critical results of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Marvel is putting those characters, with the exception of Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang, on the sidelines for this installment. So no Hank Pym or Janet Van Dyne. And Evangeline Lilly previously announced that she was stepping away from acting so that might be another key reason why Wasp is sitting this one out.
Eternals Are Not Forever
Not a one. Not even Harry Styles as Eros! This is probably not surprising since the film disappointed at the box office, but given the movie’s cliffhanger ending with Arishem and the fact that Captain America: Brave New World addressed the giant dead Celestial in the ocean, maybe we’ll see Sersi, Kingo, Sprite (or not since she was made human in the end), Phastos, Makkari, Druig, and Thena show up in Avengers: Secret Wars instead.
The Young Avengers
The MCU has been teasing a Young Avengers lineup for a few years now – Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop, America Chavez, Skaar, Eli Bradley, possibly Iron Lad and T’Challa’s son – but not one of them is in Doomsday.
Blade Didn’t Make the Cut
This shouldn’t be surprising since they still haven’t shot the Blade movie with Mahershala Ali despite teasing him in Eternals. And while Channing Tatum’s Gambit (somehow) managed to survive to fight in Doomsday, Wesley Snipes’ Blade perished in Deadpool & Wolverine.
However, thanks to comments from chatty Nightcrawler actor Alan Cumming, it sounds like the Avengers and X-Men do indeed face off against each other (Cumming previously discussed being in a fight with Pedro Pascal’s Mr. Fantastic, though later suggested that due to the amount of green screen shooting involved, he was no longer certain).
Such a face-off would perhaps make sense, if the Avengers arrived within the X-Men universe and were perceived to be a threat — especially if Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom is involved, and manipulating one team against the other. We’ve already seen a character travel over to the X-Men universe, too — Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau ended up there alongside Beast at the end of The Marvels.
So, is this what the Russo brothers are now teasing? Or is there even more to the image than expected? It seems unlikely at this point that Doomsday might get a last-minute name change to Avengers vs. X-Men, though some fans have suggested the movie’s story, which will continue in 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars, still seems too big for just two films.
Could we see a third Avengers movie, turning this latest crop of blockbusters into a full trilogy? Alas, this also does seem unlikely — especially as Disney replaced a spare 2027 movie release date it had reserved for Marvel this week with the freshly-announced Simpsons Movie 2.
Still, we know Marvel has big plans for X-Men in the future. Following the events of Secret Wars, Marvel boss Kevin Feige has said that a semi-rebooted timeline will see a new, younger X-Men team come to the fore, in a fresh X-Men movie set to be directed by Thunderbolts*/The New Avengers’ Jake Schreier. Hopefully we find out the true meaning of the Russo brothers’ tease before the arrival of that.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social