With a massive returning roster for Avengers: Doomsday, some familiar faces are inevitably left out of the action against Doctor Doom. Nick Fury is among the notable absences, with actor Samuel L. Jackson confirming the character won’t appear in the upcoming sequel, but will instead get his turn in the subsequent instalment, Secret Wars.
Speaking to The Direct ahead of the premiere for his newest film, The Beast, the 77-year-old teased his next Marvel outing, though no other details were shared: “I have no idea. [Marvel] hasn’t told me anything, other than, ‘You’re not gonna be in this movie. You’ll be in the next.”
The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was last seen in 2023’s The Marvels and its Secret Invasion sequel series, where he returned to Earth with the Khan family after finishing his work on the S.A.B.E.R. space station and confronted the fallout of his relationship with the Skrulls, respectively. It’s unclear what role he will play in Avengers: Secret Wars, be it coordinating heroes or dealing with the consequences of Doomsday, since additional details like the story and cast have yet to be revealed.
The film is expected to cap off Anthony and Joe Russo’s (known collectively as the Russo Brothers) involvement with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as the final chapter in the Multiverse saga. Named after a major superhero crossover event published in Marvel Comics in 1984 and 1985 that saw a super-being called the Beyonder whisking a slew of heroes and villains away to a planet called Battleworld, it’s currently scheduled for release on 17 December 2027.
As for Doomsday, the 39th MCU feature is coming to theatres on 18 December, with the Avengers: Endgame Encore re-release described as “essential” to understanding the events in the forthcoming crossover. Alongside existing members of the Avengers, such as Anthony Mackie’s Captain America (plus Chris Evan’s version), Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, and Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier, it will (re)assemble the likes of the latest Fantastic Four — Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Thing), Joseph Quinn (Human Torch), Pedro Pascal (Mister Fantastic), and Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm) — the New Avengers (Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, David Harbour’s Red Guardian, Lewis Pullman’s Sentry, Wyatt Russell’s U.S. Agent, and more), and the X-Men, which includes Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Channing Tatum as Gambit, Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen as Magneto, and James Marsden as Cyclops, among others.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
