The Most Surprising Avengers and Marvel Characters Not Announced for Doomsday

Thanks to Marvel's hours-long stream of empty chairs last year, fans have known the main cast of Avengers: Doomsday for a while now. And most of those actors are on display in the jam-packed new Doomsday trailer, apart from a couple of X-Men. But that still leaves an awful lot of MCU veterans who are nowhere to be found in the newest Avengers movie. Are they really going to leave out Tom Holland's Spider-Man, Brie Larson's Captain Marvel, and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine? Maybe so.

Some absentees 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…

Details

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 apart from Loki. Ditto Riri Williams/Ironheart who made her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever but who's starring in her own Disney+ series later this year.

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, Cassie Lang, 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.

There are a gazillion characters in the MCU but the aforementioned were the ones whose absence from the ranks of Avengers: Doomsday we found most noteworthy. Sound off in the comments about which omissions surprised or bummed you out the most.

This article was originally published on March 26, 2025 and updated on July 20, 2026 with the latest infro about Avengers: Doomsday.