Avengers: Doomsday broke a 26-year rule with one X-Men character, and the change hides in plain sight on his costume. Ian McKellen returns as Magneto in the upcoming Avengers movie, which brings his corner of the X-Men franchise into the MCU for the first time. The Russo Brothers' crossover pits heroes from three universes against Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom, and the mutants who debuted under 20th Century Fox stand at the heart of that fight.
New Avengers: Doomsday character art surfaced online, showing Ian McKellen’s Magneto with an X-Men belt buckle at his waist. It marks the first time the actor’s Magneto ever wore the team’s symbol, dating back to his debut in the first X-Men film in 2000. The reveal caps a turn of events 26 years in the making.
The art places the movie’s heroes inside individual display panels, and Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi appears among the characters pictured beside the Master of Magnetism. Magneto’s panel reveals his full costume. He wears his classic helmet and a red tunic, with a fur-trimmed cape draped over his shoulders. The design pulls straight from the comics, where Erik Lehnsherr’s red and purple color scheme defined the character for decades.
That costume matches the wave of Doomsday merchandise revealed around San Diego Comic-Con. Hot Toys, Hasbro, and Iron Studios all unveiled Magneto collectibles bearing the same X-logo buckle, which confirms the detail comes from the film itself rather than an artist’s flourish. Marvel Studios kept this look under wraps until now. The movie’s third teaser only showed Erik in a plain red shirt and sweater during a quiet moment with Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier.
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters on December 18. Anthony and Joe Russo direct the film, which picks up 14 months after the events of Thunderbolts.
Magneto's 26 Years Without the X-Men Symbol
Ian McKellen first played Magneto in X-Men, the 2000 film that kicked off the modern superhero boom. He served as the movie’s main villain, leading the Brotherhood of Mutants in a plot to forcibly mutate world leaders with a machine powered by Anna Paquin’s Rogue. The X-Men stopped him at the Statue of Liberty, and the story closed with Erik locked inside a plastic prison.
X2 kept him behind those plastic walls at first. Mystique broke him out by injecting iron into a guard’s bloodstream, and he joined forces with the X-Men to stop William Stryker’s plan to wipe out mutantkind. The truce collapsed at Alkali Lake. Magneto reprogrammed Stryker’s machine to target humans instead, then flew off with Mystique and Pyro.
X-Men: The Last Stand pushed the fight between humans and mutants to its breaking point. Magneto raised an army against the government’s mutant cure and tore the Golden Gate Bridge from its foundations to attack Alcatraz. Beast ended the battle by injecting him with that same cure, though a final scene teased his powers slowly creeping back.
A brief return followed in The Wolverine, where Magneto appeared in the credits scene beside a resurrected Xavier to warn Logan about Trask Industries. That moment set up X-Men: Days of Future Past, which gave McKellen his last full outing in the role.
The elderly Magneto of that film’s dark future finally fought beside the X-Men against the Sentinels, yet even then he dressed in his own dark robes. The X-Men uniform stayed off limits.
Michael Fassbender portrayed the younger version of Erik through the prequel era, and McKellen’s take never appeared on screen again after 2014.
That changed in March 2025, when Marvel Studios confirmed his return during the film’s marathon casting livestream, and the studio plans to use the character much differently from the Fox era.
Why Does Magneto Join the X-Men in Avengers: Doomsday?
Across five movies, Sir Ian's Magneto largely viewed the X-Men as enemies or a means to an end. The Master of Magnetism sporting the team's logo means he's now a member, which is interesting given their storied past.
The state of his home universe likely explains the change of heart. The Doomsday trailers confirmed that Sentinels hunt the X-Men's universe and Doctor Doom is behind the chaos. If Doom and the Sentinels ravaged what remains of mutantkind in his world, Erik’s war on humanity is the least of his problems, and survival beside his old friend Charles becomes the only cause left.
Days of Future Past laid the groundwork years ago. Facing extinction in that film’s ruined future, Erik admitted he regretted the decades wasted fighting his closest friend. Doomsday appears to pick up on that, presenting the two old men as companions instead of rivals. With the multiverse in trouble and Doom ready to let all hell loose, it makes sense that Magneto would join the X-Men as he stands a better chance of survival with them than alone.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
