According to one well-known insider, Avengers: Doomsday will make history with its leading MCU star. Avengers 5 has a tall task in front of it. Not only is it tackling a massive Multiversal conflict between Earth's Mightiest Heroes and the villainous Doctor Doom, it will be doing so without prominent A-list names like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans on its central Avengers team (despite Downey still being in the movie as its masked madman villain).
That will, however, seemingly set the stage for other major stars still a part of the super-powered franchise to step up and fill the shoes of some of these classic heroes. Newer names like Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards and Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova will likely take some of the spotlight, but one name will reportedly stand out among the crowd.
During a recent episode of The Ringer's The Town podcast, Puck's Matthew Belloni revealed that he's heard Avengers: Doomsday will be the first Avengers film to feature Chris Hemsworth's Thor in a lead role.
In a conversation about the future of the MCU and whether or not it will be able to buoy up-and-coming stars like it has for so many years, Belloni posited to guest Ben Fritz that "from everything that I've heard about Avengers: Doomsday, the second lead is [Chris] Hemsworth:"
Ben Fritz: "I think this has been the formula all the way back to Christopher Reeve is that if the movie is working, then the character should be bigger than the star.
Craig Horlbeck: "But Robert Downey Jr. suggests the opposite."
Matthew Belloni: "Yeah, and the fact that from everything that I've heard about 'Avengers: Doomsday,' the second lead is Hemsworth. Like, he has got a major role."
This marks a significant moment in Hemsworth's tenure as Marvel Studios' God of Thunder, as he has yet to truly lead an Avengers film. Sure, the character has been prominently featured in every Avengers film thus far, but has always played fiddle to characters like Chris Evans' Captain America and Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man.
It looks as though this will change with the forthcoming Avengers sequel, which will put Hemsworth at the forefront of the super-powered team and lead the film alongside Downey's new Multiversal villain.
It is worth noting that fans may have gotten a hint at Hemsworth's prominent role in the Doomsday story as early as March of this year. The Thor actor was the first to be revealed in the now-iconic chair livestream that revealed much of the Avengers 5 cast, potentially pointing toward the actor/character's reported lead billing.
Avengers: Doomsday comes to theaters on December 18, 2026. The new film from Endgame and Infinity War filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo will see classic MCU heroes like Hemsworth's Thor team up with the various new additions to the Marvel Studios canon (i.e., the Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts) as well as classic X-Men movie actors to thwart a plan to rule over the Marvel Multiverse by the terrifying Doctor Doom.
Every Avengers Movie Lead So Far
The Avengers
2012's The Avengers debuted the two-hander duo that the MCU would build its Avengers franchise on for years to come by finally teaming up Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark with Chris Evans' Steve Rogers. For this initial Avengers outing, these two heroes served as the co-leads, sitting at the head of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
This left Thor standing in the shadow of these two super-powered giants, serving as a supporting player rather than the core piece fans may have wanted him to be after he was one of the original MCU heroes to have gotten a solo film to date at that point.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Thor took even more of a step back in Avengers: Age of Ultron, with characters like Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner and Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff getting more screentime than Hemsworth's chiseled Asgardian.
Do not get me wrong, Age of Ultron is still ultimately Tony Stark's movie, being the impetus (along with Ruffalo's Bruce) of the team's rogue AI problem that emerges with the creation of the movie's titular robotic villain. However, Thor is left in this film with a couple of stellar action sequences, a hilarious hammer gag, and not much more.
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Doomsday is probably the closest thing fans have gotten to a Thor-led Avengers movie to this point; however, he falls behind the core Chris and Tony duo like before. This movie gives Thor much to do, as he essentially leads his own plan of action with the Guardians of the Galaxy.
His part of the story includes restarting a dead star, forging his new Stormbreaker axe, as well as getting to go head-to-head with the Mad Titan Thanos in the wilds of Wakanda. But it's still Cap and Iron Man who lead the team and, in turn, the movie.
Avengers: Endgame
Like the previous Avengers film, Avengers: Endgame is again led by Evans and Downey. This is especially the case as the Infinity Saga closer served as a send-off for the pair's characters, with both actors leaving the franchise after the film.
Thor still gets some exciting things to do, like teaming up with Cap and Tony in an epic final battle between the MCU's original trio and the Mad Titan Thanos, but he is still not the lead fans had hoped he might be. Luckily, with him being the last of these OG Avengers still fighting, the spotlight will seemingly be his in Doomsday.
