Professor X and Magneto are still playing chess after all these years, and Cyclops’ optic blasts are as powerful as ever, in the latest teaser trailer for Avengers: Doomsday. The Doomsday X-Men trailer heralds the long-anticipated entry of the uncanny mutants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As the camera pans over scenws in Charles Xavier’s rather dusty school for gifted youngsters, we see a chess piece levitate, a call back to the chess games Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) started playing way back in 2000’s X-Men, a superhero film that predated the MCU and helped proved the viability of a modern Marvel movie relatively loyal to comics lore.
Soon we see Xavier warmly touching Magneto’s arms. The master of magnetism has let his gray hair grow out, and it looks good.
Then all the warm fuzzy feelings dissipate as Scott Summers (James Marsden) unleashes the full fury of his eyes.
You can watch it above or right here.
Details of the trailer leaked earlier this month, but now Disney has released it in its full majesty. It’s the third teaser trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, following previous ones that promised the return of Chris Evans as Captain America (last seen in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame) and Chris Hemsworth’s Thor (last seen in 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder.)
Stewart has flirted with the MCU before, popping up in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But Doomsday marks a more substantive reunion.
The film will also, of course, bring Robert Downey Jr. back to the MCU — though this time instead of playing Iron Man, he’ll play Doctor Doom, who debuted in this past summer’s Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Doomsday also brings back Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo.
Who Is In Avengers: Doomsday?
Disney is taking a more is more approach to Doomsday. In addition to bringing back the co-directors and all the stars named above, Doomsday will also feature original X-Men actors Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, and Kelsey Grammer, new Captain America actor Anthony Mackie, new Falcon actor Danny Ramirez, and Thunderbolts stars Sebastian Stan, Florence Pugh, Wyatt Russell, Lewis Pullman, David Harbour, and Hannah-John Kamen.
Oh, did you think we were done? No. Avengers: Doomsday will also feature Black Panther: Wakanda Forever stars Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, and Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Ant-Man star Paul Rudd, Shang-Chi star Simu Liu, Fantastic Four: First Steps stars Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, and Pedro Pascal, and Loki star Tom Hiddleston, as well as Channing Tatum, who played Gambit in Wolverine vs. Deadpool.
Robert Downey Jr. helped introduce them all in this teaser released last year.
There will probably be many more cast announcements, and probably some surprise cameos as well. Stay tuned.
The Avengers and X-Men meeting — to say nothing of the meeting of the Fantastic Four and the heroes of the MCU — once seemed impossible because Fox owned the movie rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four, while Marvel owned The Avengers and their related IP.
Things began to coalesce when Disney acquired Marvel in 2009, and 10 years later acquired Fox. Disney also worked out an agreement with Sony, which owns the cinematic rights to Spider-Man, to allow new webslinger Tom Holland to start appearing in MCU films, starting with 2016’s Captain America: Civil War.
So 12-year-old us would like to give a special shoutout to the many, many lawyers involved in the negotiations to finally bring all our childhood heroes to the big screen, together.
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters December 18, 2026.
Main image: James Marsden as Cyclops in the new Avengers: Doomsday trailer.