James Marsden made his debut as Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, in 20th Century Fox's first X-Men movie, and went on to reprise the role in X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, and (briefly) X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Though most fans felt that Marsden did a pretty good job with what he had to work with, the character was severely underutilized, taking more of a background role in each movie before being unceremonially killed-off in The Last Stand.
Marsden, along with quite a few of his OG X-Men cast mates, will return as Cyclops for Avengers: Doomsday, and the hope is that we will finally get to see what the team's fearless leader is really capable of on the big screen. If the character's brief appearance in one of the recent teasers is any indication, this shouldn't be much of a concern.
For his part, Marsden seems very confident that Marvel is going to deliver when it comes to the X-Men's return and the movie overall.
"Yes, of course," the actor told Entertainment Tonight when asked whether Doomsday will give fans what they want. "I mean, I've also been trained not to speak too much about this particular project, but of course you can count on being blown away, seeing so many new things, and the Russo Brothers upping the ante and Marvel just giving everyone what they want."
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were hit with significant delays last year, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
Doomsday will star:
Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Lewis Pullman as Sentry, Florence Pugh as Yelena, Danny Ramirez as Falcon, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, James Marsden as Cyclops, Channing Tatum as Gambit, and Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
Along with Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, Letitia Wright as Black Panther, Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor, Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, and, of course, Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.