Channing Tatum, James Marsden, and Ian McKellen’s MCU Futures Reportedly Extend Beyond AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY
Marvel may have bigger plans for Gambit, Cyclops, and Magneto than we thought. Channing Tatum, James Marsden, and Ian McKellen are already part of the mutant madness surrounding Avengers: Doomsday, but a new rumor suggests their MCU stories could continue into Avengers: Secret Wars.
According to Marvel scooper James Mack, Tatum, Marsden, and McKellen are likely to return for Avengers: Secret Wars. If the rumor proves true, Marvel could be keeping some of its most recognizable legacy X-Men around for the final chapter of the Multiverse Saga.
That makes Marsden’s situation particularly interesting. Marvel has cast Kit Connor as Cyclops in its upcoming X-Men reboot, meaning two versions of Scott Summers could potentially be in play as Marvel transitions into its next era.
That opens the door to all kinds of multiverse craziness, including the possibility that some familiar characters won’t survive whatever happens in Secret Wars.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has already explained that Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić’s 2015 Secret Wars comic will help shape Avengers: Doomsday, Avengers: Secret Wars, and the MCU that follows.
“It starts with a collision of worlds, and it ends in a Marvel Multiverse rebuilt and retooled for the modern age. They invented something new, seamlessly picking up where the old universe left off, but branching out in all-new, all-different directions. We do the same thing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”
The comic concluded with the Marvel Universe being rebuilt, leading into the All-New, All-Different Marvel era. Marvel Studios appears to be aiming for its own version of that idea, using the end of the Multiverse Saga to reshape the MCU and establish its next generation of heroes.
Tatum, Marsden, and McKellen may only be part of the legacy character roster Marvel has in mind. Other rumors claim Secret Wars could bring in Marvel characters who don’t appear in Doomsday, potentially pulling from Tim Story’s Fantastic Four movies, Fant4stic, The Amazing Spider-Man films, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man universe, and even Ang Lee’s Hulk.
One especially wild rumor involves Miles Teller returning as Reed Richards, only this time as the Maker, the sinister alternate version of Mister Fantastic. If Marvel really wants Secret Wars to celebrate, collide, and ultimately reshape its various cinematic universes, that would certainly fit the occasion.
There’s also talk that Marvel could change how it handles the Avengers after Secret Wars. Rather than regularly returning to the team, future Avengers movies could become once-a-decade event films, similar to the pairings of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame and now Doomsday and Secret Wars.
Under that approach, X-Men, The Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man could become the MCU’s primary franchises going forward, filling a role similar to the one Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man occupied throughout the Infinity Saga.
Of course, the Secret Wars casting information remains rumor for now, so none of these returns should be treated as confirmed. Still, it’s cool to think about what could be.
Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters December 18, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on December 17, 2027.