Avengers: Doomsday is shaping up to be a jam-packed movie, but if even half of what we've heard about Marvel Studios' plans for Secret Wars proves to be accurate, Doomsday's roster of heroes and villains will pale in comparison to the Multiverse Saga finale's lineup.
Possible spoilers ahead.
According to scooper MTTSH, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) will make his MCU return in Secret Wars.
We haven't seen Peter Quill since James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and while the threequel's closing title card told us that "the mighty Star-Lord will return," there's been no word on the character since. Even so, this news probably won't come as much of a surprise if you happened to see that leaked concept art (though Joe and Anthony Russo denied that it was official) that did the rounds online last year.
Assuming the artwork was legit, we can expect to see Quill team up with Vision, Wong and several younger heroes such as Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop and Wiccan.
Here's what Pratt had to say about potentially reprising the role in a recent interview.
"Yes and no," the actor told Happy Sad Confused when asked if his MCU return had been decided yet. "Everything is fluid at Marvel. They take things a step at a time. I'm happy to do anything they want, and I personally have a really strong vision of what I would want him to do. I think it's f*cking great. I've made my pitch. I'm down to contribute any way I can to setting up the next 10 years of storytelling."
There were whispers of a solo Star-Lord movie being developed shortly after Vol. 3 was released, but the prevailing theory is that the idea was scrapped when Gunn decided to jump ship to DC Studios.
As for the other Guardians of the Galaxy, a new line-up took shape with Rocket Raccoon as team leader at the end of Vol. 3, but it remains to be seen if any of them show up in future MCU projects.
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.