Yesterday, Marvel announced a massive list of actors returning for Avengers: Doomsday. The list was announced via a five hour long live stream that saw millions of people tune in via Marvel's various social media platforms. The stream was almost six hours long, but it kept the attention of millions. If you haven't seen it or want to review it, the list is below.
Chris Hemsworth - Thor
Vanessa Kirby - Invisible Woman
Anthony Mackie - Captain America
Sebastian Stan - Bucky
Letitia Wright - Black Panther
Paul Rudd - Ant-Man
Wyatt Russell - U.S. Agent
Tenoch Huerta Mejia - Namor
Ebon Moss-Bachrach - The Thing
Simu Liu - Shang-Chi
Florence Pugh - Yelena Belova
Kelsey Grammer - Beast
Lewis Pullman - The Sentry
Danny Ramirez - The Falcon
Joseph Quinn - Human Torch
David Harbour - Red Guardian
Winston Duke - M'Baku
Hannah John-Kamen - Ghost
Tom Hiddleston - Loki
Patrick Stewart - Professor X
Ian McKellen - Magneto
Alan Cumming - Nightcrawler
Rebecca Romijn - Mystique
James Marsden - Cyclops
Channing Tatum - Gambit
Pedro Pascal - Mister Fantastic
Robert Downey Jr. - Doctor Doom
Notice anyone missing? Obviously, there's quite a few characters missing, but specifically, every character that has been exclusive to Disney+ has been left out. There are some characters that have appeared in Disney+ shows and movies like the new Falcon and US Agent, but every character that has only appeared in a Disney+ show is seemingly not around for Avengers: Doomsday.
Disney+ has released The Flacon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Secret Wars, Echo, Agatha All Along, and Daredevil: Born Again with Ironheart set to come out before Avengers: Doomsday.
From WandaVision, not a single major character is set to appear in Doomsday. The major characters within that show exclusive to Disney+ were Wanda's sons, White Vision, and Agatha Harkness.
From The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, every major character is set to appear in Doomsday, but they all will have also made their big screen debuts.
From Loki, Sylvie is the only major absence.
From Hawkeye, the only major absence is Kate Bishop. However, Jeremy Renner is not currently set to return, but he isn't a Disney+ exclusive character.
From Moon Knight, there are no characters currently returning for Doomsday including Moon Knight himself.
Ms. Marvel is similar, although Ms. Marvel is no longer a Disney+ exclusive character. That being said, her only feature film is Marvel's worst performing movie.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law also has no characters from the show appearing in Doomsday. All Hulk-like characters are currently not in the film despite lots of concept art leaking with them in it. Although, the Russo brothers did say that wasn't their art.
Secret Wars had very few major characters that were exclusive to its show that really could make an appearance, but Skrulls seem to have no part to play in Doomsday.
Echo has no major characters appearing in Doomsday including the titular character.
Agatha All Along shares a few characters with WandaVision, but Agatha and everyone else from the show will not be appearing in Doomsday.
Daredevil: Born Again characters’ absences is one of the more surprising as the show has been very popular and Daredevil as a character is in high demand. Kingpin, Punisher, Muse, and every other character will be absent.
Finally, no one from Ironheart, a show we admittedly don't know the entire cast for yet, will show up.
Out of the 12 Disney+ shows, only two currently have any characters from their show set to appear at all. From Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson, Falcon, and Bucky Barnes are appearing. From Loki, there’s Loki. That’s it.
Why there are so few Disney+ characters appearing in Doomsday is a very good question. Marvel certainly seemed to be okay with making movies that rely on audiences watching the Dinsey+ shows as Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, The Marvels, and Captain America: Brave New World all relied on Disney+ shows. However, two of those movies did not do well. As stated before, The Marvels is the MCU’s worst performing movie, and Captain America: Brave New World didn’t fair that much better. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness did significantly better than those two, but that character was very well established and liked by fans. Disney may not want to bet on their streaming service, which is admittedly very popular, for the success of their biggest movie in over half a decade.
While there’s a lot of names missing from Avengers: Doomsday, the cast list clearly isn’t complete. Robert Downey Jr. and Marvel have teased on Instagram that the list still isn’t done, so it’s entirely possible that some names from the Dinsey+ shows will be in the second batch of announcements.
Why do you think there are no Disney+ exclusive characters in Avengers: Doomsday so far? Are they simply not announced yet, or does Disney not have enough confidence in their shows? Let us know in the comments!