Mystique is returning in Marvel Studios' Avengers: Doomsday, but a hint at her new look suggests a Disney-style overhaul. Fans were thrilled to learn that many X-Men stars, including original Mystique actor Rebecca Romijn, were returning in the latest Avengers film. This will be the first time many of the X-Men actors have portrayed their characters in the MCU, calling for a redesign of their original looks.
The merchandise given to the crew of Avengers: Doomsday (shared by Daniel RPK) revealed that Mystique is expected to look quite different in her Avengers appearance. This included a first look at the design of 28 characters in the upcoming film, such as Romijn's blue-skinned mutant.
One thing immediately noticeable about Mystique's render in the imagery is that she seems to be sporting a different hairstyle. In the X-Men films, Romijn's character always had slicked-back hair, while this image seems to suggest her hair may be longer and looser in Doomsday.
The merchandise also depicts Mystique wearing a black-and-white superhero suit, a new addition to her look.
In the original X-Men films, Mystique was usually shown without clothes, which mirrors how she is typically depicted in Marvel Comics. Her shapeshifting abilities easily let her transform into others, including their outfits; however, her natural look in those films was to appear nude.
The addition of a superhero suit for Mystique in Avengers: Doomsday seems to indicate that the character has entered a Disney-owned space. Disney has often been synonymous with family-friendly content, and that mandate usually extends to the company's subsidiaries, including Marvel Studios.
The decision to give Mystique a suit in Avengers: Doomsday could be seen as Disney wanting to eliminate her nude-like appearance and make the film family-friendly. Avengers: Doomsday will likely be one of Disney's biggest films in 2026 and thus will have a vast worldwide reach for the studio, so it's not surprising that any attempt to make this film as accessible for as many audiences as possible is being taken.
Despite a shift from Romijn's character's original design, there is precedent for Mystique to wear clothes.
In some comics, she's been depicted wearing a black leather outfit or a more stylized one-piece suit. Jennifer Lawrence's version of the character in X-Men: First Class also wore an X-Suit that styled her like the other mutants in Charles Xavier's team.
Mystique's new Avengers suit seems to differ from these previous outfits. The imagery only reveals Mystique's design from chest-up, but it shows that her suit covers her neck and chest. This suggests that Mystique's superhero suit in Avengers: Doomsday will cover as much skin as possible, which aligns with Disney's family-friendly policies.
Adding a suit also benefits Romijn, who previously said Mystique's nine-hour full-body makeup process was one of the role's challenges. While some prosthetic makeup will still be required for her face, adding a supersuit should significantly cut down the time in the makeup chair.
Avengers: Doomsday recently wrapped production in the UK before its December 18, 2026, release date. The new Avengers film reunites several Marvel Studios mainstays and introduces Romijn's X-Men colleagues to the MCU, including Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, and Alan Cumming.
What Is Mystique's Role in Avengers: Doomsday?
Mystique's role in the X-Men films was typically that of a villain. In the original trilogy, the mutant shape-shifter sided with Ian McKellen's Magneto against Professor X and the X-Men. However, in X-Men: The Last Stand, Mystique is shot with a mutant cure in her efforts to protect Magneto, leading to him abandoning her as she is no longer of the mutant kind.
This opens up plenty of interesting storytelling opportunities for Mystique in Avengers: Doomsday, should the movie continue the plotline of the original films. However, it remains unclear which Earth from the Multiverse Avengers: Doomsday will pull from for its X-Men characters, and the movie could instead choose to wipe the slate clean for Mystique.
Now that Mystique is being redesigned with a new suit, it could suggest that the antihero is shifting to the X-Men's side in Avengers: Doomsday. With Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom stepping in as the film's overarching villain, he could pose enough of a threat that the X-Men must unite alongside the Avengers to stop him, offering Mystique the chance to play with the heroes for a change.
