Like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame before it, Avengers: Doomsday is a highly secretive production. With so many actors needed on set, the Russo Brothers are likely facing some unique challenges, though that's nothing new to them.
With Avengers: Infinity War, for example, Benedict Cumberbatch's busy schedule meant he wasn't with his co-stars a lot of the time. A double shot many of his scenes, with Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange later inserted into those. Several other actors in the same sequences never even met, and moviegoers were none the wiser.
Something similar is happening with Avengers: Doomsday, and X2: X-Men United star Alan Cumming revealed some of the unique challenges he's faced on "set" while reprising his role as Nightcrawler.
"I did the entire film in isolation. Lots of green screen, face replacement," he told Gold Derby. "They even gave characters fake names. I don’t know who I was acting with half the time."
Cumming added, "I broke the internet by mentioning something once, but honestly, I might have got it wrong."
That's a reference to him previously saying he'd been shooting a fight scene with Mister Fantastic actor Pedro Pascal. However, as he's previously acknowledged that he got in trouble for revealing that, we'd bet on Reed Richards and Kurt Wagner still crossing paths.
Cumming will have been de-aged as Nightcrawler, while the "face replacement" he refers to is likely for actors who weren't available. Some social media users have been critical of this approach to filmmaking, but as noted, it's nothing the Russo Brothers haven't done before.
In another recent interview, Cumming called his Avengers: Doomsday experience "amazing," and said it was "healing and really nice to go back to something that it was a terrible experience when I did it the first time. A great film, great film. I love the film."
"It was actually really great to go back," he continued. "And especially, I'm 60 years old. I did not think I would be doing stunts, playing a superhero in my 60s. So that was great. And everyone was really nice. And I got it done really quickly because I couldn't go, because of The Traitors, when most of my scenes were being shot."
Avengers: Doomsday stars Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Winston Duke, Tom Hiddleston, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, and Robert Downey Jr. Wyatt Russell, Simu Liu, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Florence Pugh, Danny Ramirez, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, and Lewis Pullman all make the Avengers franchise debuts in the movie.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps leads Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn join them, as do X-Men franchise stars Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, and Deadpool & Wolverine star Channing Tatum.
The Russo Brothers direct the movie from a screenplay by Stephen McFeely, with whom they previously collaborated on the Captain America and Avengers franchises. Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness's Michael Waldron is also working on the script.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released on December 18, 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive on December 17, 2027.