During Marvel Studios' Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal, it was confirmed that Sir Ian McKellen will reprise his role as Magneto in the long-awaited Multiverse Saga finale.
The actor first played the Master of Magnetism in 2000, and continued to do so until 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past. When the latter was released, he shared the role with Michael Fassbender, but it's hardly surprising that Kevin Feige is bringing back the OG Magneto.
While the villain has been front and centre in just about every X-Men movie, whether those did him justice is another matter altogether. X-Men: The Last Stand succeeded in showing what Magneto could do when he let loose with his powers, and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants...well, the group often left fans wanting more.
We'd bet on that changing in Avengers: Doomsday, and a new rumour suggests Magneto resides in a castle in the movie. The MCU movie is set to shoot at Windsor Castle in England next month, and while some fans suspected it would double for Doctor Doom's castle in Latveria, multiple sources claim it belongs to the X-Men villain.
If so, we'd imagine Marvel Studios is taking inspiration from comic book locations like Autumn Palace and Magneto's Citadel. Needless to say, it's going to make for an epic piece of imagery if, for example, we see Magneto atop his throne, surrounded by his fellow evil mutants.
This scene will likely play out on Earth-10005. However, there's a chance Avengers: Doomsday's Magneto will be a different Multiversal Variant. It may even be the new status quo for the character if Doctor Doom recreates the Multiverse in his image as "Battleworld."
You can take a closer look at Magneto's castle in the X post at the bottom of this article.
In 2023, Stewart was asked what McKellen thought of his MCU debut in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and responded, "Actually, it went very well. He did say something like ['Hey, I would’ve done this!'] Yes, that’s true. But we’re not done, Sir Ian and myself. We’re... we got plans."
McKellen, who intends to reprise another of his most iconic roles, Gandalf, in Andy Serkis' Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, has made it clear he has no intention of slowing down despite being 86. "I'll carry on until the knees give way or the memory gives way or the mind goes," he said last September. "There’s nothing else I’d rather do with my life than that. Much better to wear out than rust out, as they say."
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.
So do The Fantastic Four: First Steps leads Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn, with X-Men franchise stars Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, and Channing Tatum set to join them.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released on December 18, 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive on December 17, 2027.