The lineup for Avengers: Doomsday is shaping up, but two actors will be unrecognizable in the film due to their motion-capture characters. The fifth Avengers movie is the next major crossover film in the MCU, and the preliminary cast list already includes over 20 names. Releasing on May 1, 2026, and directed by Avengers: Endgame duo Anthony and Joe Russo, the Phase 6 film also marks the first on-screen crossover between superhero teams, including the New Avengers, Fantastic Four, and the X-Men.
The Motion-Capture Characters Appearing in Avengers: Doomsday
Beast
First appearing in the Fox X-Men universe, Kelsey Grammer returns as his blue-haired hero Beast (aka Dr. Hank McCoy) in Avengers: Doomsday. In X-Men: The Last Stand, Grammer underwent an extensive prosthetic makeup process to play Beast, but that process will switch to motion capture in the MCU.
Grammer's new look as Beast was first featured in the MCU in the post-credits scene for The Marvels, where Beast oversees Monica Rambeau's rehabilitation after she arrives in the alternate universe. Grammer recently spoke out about his eagerness to return as Beast, seeing as the motion-capture process eliminated all those hours in the makeup chair for the actor:
"They did this movie called 'The Marvels,' and somewhere during that shooting, somebody called me and said, 'Would you come down and think about just doing a little motion capture with you?... I did a little scene, and then they put the blue on me so I didn't have to dress up or anything anymore, that was fantastic."
Grammer will rejoin his fellow X-Men actors Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, and James Marsden, to name a few, but it's unclear how big of a role the superhero team will play in Avengers: Doomsday.
The Thing
Audiences will meet Ebon Moss-Bachrach's The Thing in July's The Fantastic Four: First Steps as a part of the superpowered family that also includes Vanessa Kirby's Invisible Woman, Pedro Pascal's Mr. Fantastic, and Joseph Quinn's Human Torch. Initially, a human Ben Grimm is turned into a rock man after the group's expedition to space. The hero's stony exterior grants him superhuman powers like strength and shielding that rival the Hulk.
Like Bruce Banner's alter ego, The Thing will be created by CGI and motion-capture in The Fantastic Four and the hero's next appearance in Avengers: Doomsday. Fans saw a glimpse of this in action in trailers for The Fantastic Four, in which Moss-Bachrach is unrecognizable following the visual effects of wizardry that transform him into The Thing.
Avengers: Doomsday Actors Who Will Use Prosthetic Makeup
Mystique
While visual effects are helpful in creating characters like Beast and the Thing, for which practical makeup would be lengthy or unrealistic, some actors on Avengers: Doomsday are set for long days in the makeup chair to achieve the look for their characters, particularly Rebecca Romijn's Mystique. For decades, the blue-skinned, shape-shifting mutant has been a mainstay in X-Men films, with Romijn playing Mystique in the original trilogy and Jennifer Lawrence taking over the role in the prequel X-Men movies.
Returning to the role for the first time in over 20 years, Romijn will again undergo the blue makeup to play Mystique in Avengers: Doomsday. Romijn shared with Looper in 2021 that the makeup was the most memorable aspect of playing her character in the X-Men film and that the process took anywhere between seven and nine hours:
"It was a nine-hour makeup process. We did, over the course of three movies, manage to get it down to seven hours."
Nightcrawler
Sporting a similar blue-skinned physique to Beast and Mystique, Alan Cumming's Nightcrawler is another character who will rely on practical makeup in Avengers: Doomsday. Cumming appeared as the teleporting mutant only in 2002's X2, making him another X-Men actor to return to the role after two decades (and the actor has already been spotted on set with his fellow X-Men stars).
Cumming shared in April (via The Hollywood Reporter) that he'd already had some makeup tests for his return as Nightcrawler and that the process had quickened significantly:
"I had some makeup tests already. It was like four and a half to five hours [of makeup] before, and now it’s 90 minutes."
This advance in the prosthetic makeup process will undoubtedly be a positive for actors like Cumming and Romijn, whose characters require a full-body process.
