10 Unconfirmed Characters Who Might Appear in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

Image via Marvel Studios Published Oct 4, 2026, 8:18 AM EDT Jeremy has more than 2800 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows. His favorite directors include Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone, Akira Kurosawa, Quentin Tarantino, Werner Herzog, John Woo, Bob Fosse, Fritz Lang, Guillermo del Toro, and Yoji Yamada. He's also very proud of the fact that he's seen every single Nicolas Cage movie released before 2022, even though doing so often felt like a tremendous waste of time. He's plagued by the question of whether or not The Room is genuinely terrible or some kind of accidental masterpiece, and has been for more than 12 years (and a similar number of viewings). When he's not writing lists - and the occasional feature article - for Collider, he also likes to upload film reviews to his Letterboxd profile (username: Jeremy Urquhart) and Instagram account. He has achieved his 2025 goal of reading all 13,467 novels written by Stephen King, and plans to spend the next year or two getting through the author's 82,756 short stories and 105,433 novellas. Sign in to your Collider account There have been ups and downs for sure when it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as the peak of the whole series to date was Phase 3, and that phase began more than 10 years ago. It built to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, with both being about as big as superhero movies have ever gotten, though the attempts to go bigger (with the multiverse and stuff) from Phase 4 onwards haven’t been quite as great. Still, there is hype for Avengers: Doomsday, partly because it’s been a while since a proper Avengers movie came out, and also because there are so many different characters who could show up at this stage, owing to different universes having different iterations of iconic characters and Disney now having the rights to the majority of Marvel characters. Robert Downey Jr. coming back (but as the villainous Doctor Doom this time around) was the biggest piece of casting news, of course, but not the only newsworthy announcement. The confirmed cast is massive, but there are plenty of characters who haven’t been confirmed, but are rumored – even if some of it’s wishful thinking – to show up. The following characters aren’t the only such ones, by any means, but they are all prominent and well-known, and even having a few show up in minor roles could prove rather exciting… time will tell, in any event. Maybe none will show up and, two months on from writing this, the whole article will look very silly. Who knows? Image via Marvel Studios Thanks to an added scene in Avengers Endgame: Encore, Bruce Banner/Hulk might seem like a shoo-in to appear in Avengers: Doomsday, but at the time of writing, there is still doubt whether he’ll show up in that movie, or be saved for Avengers: Secret Wars (scheduled for 2027). That added scene is right at the end, and takes place after the events of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, so it doesn’t make a ton of sense unless you’ve seen that film. Banner is visited by Doom and whisked away, all presented in a strange and oddly low-budget manner, but it’s still intriguing just what Doom wants to do with Banner and/or the Hulk. Also, the Hulk’s been a big part of the MCU from the start, especially with 2008’s The Incredible Hulk being canon (albeit Edward Norton was replaced by Mark Ruffalo), so he does feel pretty close to essential, all to the point where it would feel weird to have the fifth Avengers movie be the first one to lack an appearance from him completely. 9 Logan / Wolverine Image via 20th Century Fox The X-Men timeline is confusing, to say the least, if it can even be counted as a timeline, but Deadpool & Wolverine did allow that side of Marvel to merge with the MCU, to some extent. Avengers: Doomsday might make things a bit clearer, but basically, Deadpool & Wolverine did establish that there was more than one Logan/Wolverine out there, with Hugh Jackman sort of reprising the role, even if Logan (2017) was also a send-off to the character. But maybe not a send-off to the same Logan who was seen in the original three X-Men movies and Days of Future Past. It gets confusing. Anyway, people do love Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, to put it mildly, and with a whole bunch of other X-Men characters showing up in Doomsday, it’s not out of the question to expect Wolverine to have perhaps a cameo, right near the end, setting up some kind of potentially bigger role for him to play in the sequel to Doomsday (again, possibly). 8 Wade Wilson / Deadpool Image via Marvel Studios If Logan/Wolverine gets a cameo, then it would make sense for Wade Wilson/Deadpool to get one, too, since they were both front and center (obviously) in 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine. Now, Deadpool would be distracting if he had a main role in an Avengers movie, unless they did find some way to have him work without the usual profanity and bloodier violence associated with the character, but it could be a tad awkward, like having that PG-ified version of The Punisher show up in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The other Avengers movies haven’t lacked some humor (even the emotionally intense third and fourth ones), so a small role for Deadpool isn't out of the question entirely. Tonally as well, Deadpool feels like he’d clash with what seems to be the generally dark and high-stakes direction Doomsday is headed in, though the other Avengers movies haven’t lacked some humor (even the emotionally intense third and fourth ones), so a small role for Deadpool isn't out of the question entirely. It does feel like a pretty sure thing to have him show up again at some point in the MCU, if not in Doomsday, then in a post-Multiverse Saga movie. 7 Dr. Stephen Strange Image via Marvel Studios Though it took until 2016 for Doctor Strange to first show up in the MCU, with his first movie focused on his origin story, he was a big part of the overall series for the next half-decade. There was a small role in Thor: Ragnarok (2017), a decent supporting role in Infinity War (2018), an appearance in Endgame (2019), another supporting role in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), and then a second solo movie: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). That’s pretty much yearly, other than 2020, but there weren’t any MCU movies released that year. So, that’s a bit over five years where he appeared on screen on six different occasions. If he doesn’t show up in Doomsday, then by this time next year, it will have been about five years since he was last seen. It would be strange (ha) to snub him for that long, given how significant a character he was for that run of MCU movies mentioned above, so some kind of re-emergence into the overall narrative (plus a decent explanation as to where he’s been this whole time) would be appreciated. 6 Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch Image via Marvel Studios It makes sense to talk about Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch right after going over Doctor Strange, since she was last seen all the way back in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. She was first seen a little earlier than Doctor Strange, with a cameo appearance in the second Captain America movie, and more of a proper introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron. She then went on to be very important, like Strange, throughout Phase 3, and then was instrumental for the early part of the Multiverse saga (with WandaVision and the second Doctor Strange movie), but then she kind of disappeared. That last movie she was in hinted that she might've died, but it didn’t feel conclusive, and would be a kind of anticlimactic exit. And when magic is involved, someone like the Scarlet Witch being “not quite dead” feels inevitably more likely. 5 Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel Image via Marvel Studios Though not physically seen in Infinity War, the post-credits scene of that film does have Nick Fury reaching out to Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel right as he’s dusted, so that set up her appearing in her first solo film the following year. Then again, that one took place earlier than most movies in the MCU, largely in 1995, but the events in that movie do establish why she was off in space when the Blip happened. She had a smaller role than might've been anticipated in Avengers: Endgame, since she didn’t take part in the time heist, but was there in the first and third acts. Then came a cameo appearance in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and then 2023’s The Marvels, which wasn’t super well-received, and since then, Captain Marvel has been absent from the MCU. She is incredibly powerful, which does mean whenever she enters a battle, she stands a pretty good chance at ending it abruptly/anticlimactically, but her power is significant enough that her being defeated by Doctor Doom in some kind of one-on-one fight would be good for establishing how powerful he is, a bit like Thanos obliterating Hulk at the beginning of Infinity War. However, if the marketing for Doomsday is anything to go by, it looks like Doom easily besting Thor in combat is going to serve the purpose of establishing his overwhelming strength. 4 Clint Barton / Hawkeye Image via Marvel Studios Hawkeye was originally a bit of a joke, potentially because he was the only member of the original Avengers team to not be super well-established before The Avengers (2012). Admittedly, Black Widow didn’t get a solo movie before The Avengers, but she had a decently large supporting role in Iron Man 2 serving as her introduction, while Hawkeye only got a cameo appearance in 2011’s Thor. He’s also the guy with the bow and arrow, rather than any amazing abilities, but he became a staple of The Avengers movies anyway, only being absent for Infinity War, but playing a part in Captain America: Civil War, which was kind of like The Avengers 2.5. Nothing’s been confirmed one way or the other as to whether Hawkeye will be seen again, so until then, he can still be filed under “could potentially show up once more.” 3 Peter Parker / Spider-Man (Earth-616) Image via Sony Pictures As mentioned before, Hulk was in the latest Spider-Man movie, but obviously, that film belonged to Peter Parker, AKA the titular character, and the balancing act was quite impressive, since Brand New Day felt almost overstuffed with Hulk, Jean Grey, and The Punisher popping up. But the focus on Peter Parker and his general life hardships was the most compelling part of that film, and it’s an understatement to say the story told really resonated with people, owing to that fourth Tom Holland Spider-Man movie’s critical reception and box office performance. It feels like a Black Panther to Infinity War situation, where emphasizing one very popular character’s role in the upcoming crossover movie would be wise, but there hasn’t been any confirmation that Spider-Man will show up. If he was showing up, you'd think they'd want to emphasize that in the marketing to piggyback off the Brand New Day hype, so maybe he won’t be here outside a surprise appearance near the end, or in a post-credits scene or something. Like with Wolverine, some kind of decently substantial role in Secret Wars might well be likelier. 2 Peter Parker / Spider-Man (Raimi-verse) If they want to have a well-established universe collapse early on in Avengers: Doomsday, the Raimi-verse being destroyed would be an undeniable gut-punch. This is the nickname for the universe where Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man is, and he did cross over into the MCU thanks to the universe-hopping in Spider-Man: No Way Home, so that left the door open for future appearances. Now, the universe staying destroyed post-Secret Wars would be surprising, if it does get destroyed in Doomsday, but the same can be said for the effects of the Blip in Infinity War being devastating at the time, albeit not permanent. The Raimi-verse could also have something bad happen to it without Maguire’s Spider-Man being directly seen, though it would be an obviously greater twist of the knife to see it affect such a widely-beloved version of Spider-Man, who is probably the most popular superhero at the moment. 1 Nick Fury Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures The last two times Nick Fury showed up in the MCU, it was in a pair of not exactly well-received 2023 entries in the whole ongoing franchise: the miniseries Secret Invasion, and also the flawed but perhaps somewhat over-hated The Marvels. As was the case with all the characters here, an appearance on the animated series What If…? isn’t counted, so Nick Fury’s been absent for about three years now. With a dozen appearances between 2008 and 2023, if you're looking at just the movies, that’s a fairly long absence, especially because Nick Fury was there from Iron Man (2008), in that film’s post-credits scene, being behind the Avengers Initiative and all. Not having him show up in even a single scene in an Avengers movie would feel strange, so fingers crossed he gets to do something (somehow) in Avengers: Doomsday. Avengers: Doomsday Release Date December 18, 2026 Runtime 165 Minutes Director Anthony Russo, Joe Russo Writers Stephen McFeely, Michael Waldron, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers Cast Robert Downey Jr. Victor von Doom Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic Sue Storm / Invisible Woman