Avengers: Doomsday features several minor characters who are secretly far more powerful than most fans think. The Marvel Studios crossover unites the Avengers, the New Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the original X-Men film cast against Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom when it hits theaters on December 18. Understandably, most of the attention so far has gone to heavy hitters like Steve Rogers, Thor, Loki, Magneto, Professor X, and other characters with a track record of taking down the toughest bad guys.
Look past the marquee names, though, and the roster hides a small group of characters who easily rank among the most powerful beings in the entire film but have been cast as supporting characters. It's easy to underestimate how strong they are, but the comics, and in some cases the movies themselves, tell a different story.
These characters have slipped under the radar partly because of the sheer scale of the film. Marvel revealed 27 actors during a marathon casting livestream in March last year, then kept adding names through trailers and social media posts for another year. When there are so many popular characters in one film, even a cosmic-level threat can sometimes get lost in the background.
Avengers: Doomsday’s Secretly Powerful Minor Characters
Cassie Lang
Kathryn Newton confirmed her return as Cassie Lang this past April through a humorous Instagram video, unboxing a miniature version of the film’s now-famous director’s chairs, a day after CinemaCon footage showed Scott Lang kissing his daughter on the head. "And it’s tiny because Cassie Lang gets tiny," Newton joked in the clip. She first played the character in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, taking over from Avengers: Endgame’s Emma Fuhrmann.
Cassie usually gets written off as Ant-Man’s kid, which undersells her badly. Quantumania revealed that she had secretly engineered a size-changing suit and a working Quantum Realm beacon, and then held her own against Kang’s soldiers. Her comic counterpart has even more spectacular feats. As Stature, Cassie was an integral member of the Young Avengers, possessing the ability to grow to skyscraper height, putting her raw strength in the same class as Giant-Man. She's fought villains like Doctor Doom and Kang the Conqueror, making her a very reliable and powerful hero.
Franklin Richards
The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduced baby Franklin as the son of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, and the entire plot revolved around him. Galactus offered to spare Earth in exchange for the child after sensing the Power Cosmic within him. The ending proved the devourer right when Franklin revived a fallen Sue with a single touch. The post-credits scene then jumped four years ahead, revealing Doctor Doom kneeling before the boy while holding his metal mask.
No one else on this list comes close to Franklin’s ceiling. In Marvel Comics, he warps reality at will, once created an entire pocket universe to save Earth’s heroes, and helped rebuild the Multiverse itself after the 2015 Secret Wars event. One future version of the character even kept Galactus as his personal herald. Doom clearly wants Franklin for a reason, and if Doomsday adapts even a fraction of his comic abilities, a small child will be arguably the strongest being in the movie.
Love
India Rose Hemsworth returns as Love after a Thor-focused teaser in December 2025 showed the young hero at her adoptive father’s side. Chris Hemsworth later confirmed his real-life daughter’s involvement on The View, joking that the teenager walked on set and asked, "Ugh, how long is this gonna take?" Love debuted in Thor: Love and Thunder as the daughter of Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher, who used Eternity’s wish to resurrect her moments before his death.
Her origins already indicate how powerful she is. Eternity, the living embodiment of the Marvel universe, does not grant wishes lightly, and Love came back changed, firing energy beams from her eyes in her very first fight. She also wields Stormbreaker, the axe that can summon the Bifrost and nearly killed Thanos, while Thor sticks with Mjolnir. She then adventured across the galaxy as one half of the duo, Love and Thunder. So, she enters Doomsday with cosmic power and hands-on training from an original Avenger and the God of Thunder.
Nightcrawler
Alan Cumming reprises Kurt Wagner more than two decades after X2: X-Men United, joining fellow returning X-Men stars Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Kelsey Grammer, and Channing Tatum. The role marks his first appearance as the teleporting mutant since 2003.
Fans remember Nightcrawler as the gentle, devout heart of the X-Men, and that reputation sometimes causes audiences to forget one of the most terrifying opening scenes in superhero cinema. A brainwashed Nightcrawler carved through the entire Secret Service in X2 and reached the President with a blade in hand; only a desperate last-minute gunshot stopped him. Teleportation can be an overpowered ability depending on how well it's used. Distance and walls are no longer a barrier when a skilled character has teleportation abilities. This makes Nightcrawler a nightmare matchup for nearly anyone without enhanced senses. His comic counterpart also has elite swordsmanship and the bloodline of the demonic mutant Azazel.
Ghost
Hannah John-Kamen is back as Ava Starr, better known as Ghost, fresh off Thunderbolts, which ended with her ragtag squad rebranded as the New Avengers. The character debuted as the antagonist of Ant-Man and the Wasp, a dying assassin phasing in and out of reality after a quantum accident killed her parents and shattered her molecular stability.
Ghost rarely gets counted among the MCU’s elite fighters, yet her track record argues otherwise. In her debut film, she repeatedly overpowered both title heroes, walked off with Hank Pym’s entire shrunken lab, and shrugged off nearly everything thrown at her. Intangibility renders conventional offense useless against her. She also has SHIELD assassin training and the quantum energy that now keeps her stable. Ghost's strengths often get overlooked, but she’s not an easy opponent to face.
Namora
Mabel Cadena’s return as Namora was confirmed by the fourth Doomsday trailer, which put the underwater kingdom of Talokan front and center, with Tenoch Huerta’s Namor watching from his throne. Cadena debuted in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, where Namora fought as her cousin Namor’s most trusted warrior during the war against Wakanda.
General audiences often view Namora as a mere henchwoman, but in the comics she's far more than that. On the page, she shares her cousin’s hybrid physiology, which grants her strength close to Namor’s own. She also served as a core member of the Agents of Atlas, a powerful secret society. Wakanda Forever showed how strong she is as she tore through Wakandan soldiers and hurled water bombs that helped flood the nation’s royal warship. Talokan brings two powerhouses into this war, and only one of them gets talked about
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.
