Avengers: Doomsday's Official Cast List Omits 7 Major 'Endgame' Actors

Marvel Studios laid out a full official cast list for Avengers: Doomsday, and it confirms one of the largest ensembles the studio ever put together for a single film. The crossover, due in theaters on December 18, pulls heroes and villains from several corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, all on a collision course with Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom. For a movie meant to close the era that Avengers: Endgame set up, though, the lineup comes with a few surprising omissions.

That official cast list, which Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and the studio rolled out as part of Disney's CinemaCon 2026 presentation in Las Vegas, leaves out seven of the biggest names from Avengers: Endgame. Each of the seven played a sizable part in the 2019 finale, some as core Avengers and one as the saga's central villain. Their absence from the Doomsday roster stands out because the new film is meant to push the Multiverse Saga toward its own ending, much the way Endgame capped the Infinity Saga.

The reveal arrived alongside a first look at footage of Robert Downey Jnr.'s Doctor Doom, which fans are itching to be made public. Several Endgame veterans did make the cut, including Chris Hemsworth's Thor and Chris Evans, who returns as Steve Rogers to continue the ending the finale gave him. The seven who did not, however, count among the most recognizable faces of the entire Infinity Saga, and their omission raises real questions about the direction the Russo brothers plan to take the story. 

Avengers: Doomsday Cast List Omits Major Endgame Stars

One of the biggest but not so surprising absences is Josh Brolin. The actor gave the Infinity Saga its defining threat as Thanos, the Mad Titan who wiped out half of all life with a snap and forced the Avengers into their desperate time heist. Brolin's villain met his end in the 2019 finale, crumbling to dust after Tony Stark turned the Infinity Stones against him. 

Thanos meeting his end is an obvious reason he was omitted from the fifth Avengers crossover, and Doom now sits on the throne that the Mad Titan once occupied as the menace everyone in the MCU feared. Doomsday is basically a Doom story, bringing in another villain as huge as Thanos just doesn’t fit. The explanations needed for his return would make the film at least four hours long. 

Unlike Thanos, other Endgame omissions are alive and kicking. Don Cheadle and Jeremy Renner both walked out of Endgame alive but will not be returning for the next Avengers film. Cheadle's James Rhodes, the armored Avenger known as War Machine, fought in the final battle and remains active in the MCU, most recently in Secret Invasion. 

Renner's Clint Barton had one of the finale's most touching arcs, traveling to Vormir for the Soul Stone and losing his closest friend in the process. Hawkeye later headlined his own series, Hawkeye. The show is expected to receive a second season, but there's been a ton of drama revolving around it.

Speaking of Hawkeye's closest buddy, Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff will obviously not appear in Doomsday because, just like Thanos, she's dead. Johansson's character gave the finale its gut punch, trading her life for the Soul Stone on Vormir so the team could undo the snap. Black Widow stayed dead in the main timeline, and her 2021 solo film served as a prequel rather than a revival. Her omission was expected. The actress has long moved on from the MCU and is set to play a key role in another superhero franchise. 

Doomsday is a Mutiverse-centric film, but it still excludes some of the best characters from across the galaxy. Bradley Cooper and Karen Gillan's characters played big roles in the cosmic side of the fight in Endgame, but it seems their services will not be needed in the upcoming crossover. 

Cooper voices Rocket, the wisecracking raccoon who stood with the Avengers in the last fight, while Gillan's Nebula pulled double duty in the finale, with the present-day version turning on a hardened past self dragged forward through time. Both characters wrapped their arcs in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and with writer-director James Gunn now steering DC Studios, the Guardians corner of the MCU has gone quiet.

While most of these omissions are expected, Hayley Atwell is missing from the lineup, which comes as a surprise, considering Steve Rogers' arc in Doomsday revolves around a decision he made with Atwell's Peggy Carter in mind. 

The character wasn’t involved in the 2019 film's sprawling action scenes, yet she had a lasting influence on the film, a story arc that Doomsday will expand upon. After Endgame, Atwell voiced Captain Carter in What If...?, then appeared in the flesh as that hero in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where Wanda Maximoff cut the cameo short. It's hard to see Steve's story in Doomsday being told without Peggy. Although she's not in the cast list, she could still make an appearance.

Could Other Omitted Endgame Heroes Still Appear in Doomsday?

The seven headline names are not the only Endgame faces missing from the official roster; a few stars from the film who did not get as much screen time as the seven listed are also missing from the Doomsday cast list. Tom Holland is probably the first name that comes to mind from that group. His Spider-Man helped take down Thanos in the finale, yet the wall-crawler never showed up in any Doomsday cast reveal or teaser. The actor is busy with another major MCU film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is the obvious culprit for his absence. However, spring reshoots leave room for character additions, so nothing here is settled.

There's also Benedict Cumberbatch, who has turned his own status into a running joke. The Doctor Strange actor played a pivotal role in both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, glimpsing the single timeline where the Avengers win, then handing over the Time Stone to buy that future. He said publicly that he would skip Doomsday because the Sorcerer Supreme doesn’t align with this part of the story, only to walk it back days later with a grin, telling reporters he had gotten it wrong and would be in the film after all. Strange never appeared on the official list, which keeps fans guessing right up to release.

There are other Endgame stars with bigger question marks over their return. They're omitted from the cast list, and there's very little to indicate they'll make a surprise appearance. Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury assembled the Avengers team in the first place and turned up for the funeral that closed Endgame, but no Doomsday announcement places him in the mix. Brie Larson's Captain Marvel arrived late to tear through Thanos' ship, though her standing in the MCU cooled after The Marvels stumbled at the box office. Captain Marvel and Nick Fury's return seems very unlikely. Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch fell in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so she's also not a part of the official roster. However, if they found a way to bring Steve back, bringing back the Scarlet Witch shouldn’t be too hard.

The wider Guardians of the Galaxy roster looks the most unlikely of all. Chris Pratt's Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana's Gamora, and Dave Bautista's Drax all fought in the finale's climactic battle, with the rest of the team beside them, yet Vol. 3 wrote most of them out and split the group for good. A full cosmic reunion feels like a long shot. Many of these iconic Engame characters are great, and fans miss them, but given how huge Doomsday's cast already is, leaving them out would be for the better.