A couple of months ago, the Marvel Studios social media accounts started live-streaming a video they labeled as an all-caps ANNOUNCEMENT. The video showed a soundstage where, one by one, chairs reserved for actors were revealed, with a new chair coming into view every 10 minutes or so. As it turns out, this was a very long and slow way of revealing (a large chunk of) the cast of Avengers: Doomsday, which is now in production and aiming for a December 18, 2026 release date (having moved back from its previously announced May release date). The names of twenty-seven cast members were shown that day, with Marvel teasing, “There’s always room for more…” And we have reason to expect there are a whole lot more, because a large number of characters we would expect to see in the movie were not in the mix that day. Not only that, but the movie might even be bringing in characters that we weren’t expecting to see pop up, at least not yet. For example, industry scooper Jeff Sneider has dropped the RUMOR that Marvel is looking to cast a new Ghost Rider for Avengers: Doomsday.
Sneider shared this rumor on an episode of the podcast The Hot Mic, which he hosts alongside critic John Rocha. Sneider said, “I have heard this week that Marvel is casting the role of Ghost Rider. … And that’s for Doomsday. I am hearing Ghost Rider is going to be in Doomsday.”
Nicolas Cage played the Johnny Blaze version of Ghost Rider in the 2007 film Ghost Rider and its 2011 follow-up Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Gabriel Luna played the Robbie Reyes version of the supernatural hero on the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. While Marvel would simply have to give Cage and/or Luna a phone call to bring them into Avengers: Doomsday, what they’re said to be doing is conducting a search for another actor to take on the role. Sneider didn’t know if this would be a recast of Blaze or Reyes, or if Marvel is casting a different iteration of the character, like Danny Ketch. (In fact, Johnny Blaze is the only Ghost Rider he was aware of before the conversation on The Hot Mic.)
Here’s the list of actors and characters who have been officially confirmed to be in the movie: We have Robert Downey Jr. – not as his Tony Stark / Iron Man character from earlier MCU movies, but as the villainous Doctor Doom / Victor von Doom. Chris Hemsworth is back as Thor, with Tom Hiddleston as his brother Loki. Anthony Mackie is back as the new Captain America, and Danny Ramirez as the new Falcon. Paul Rudd returns as Ant-Man. So does Simu Liu as Shang-Chi. The Fantastic Four is in the line-up: Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm. From Wakanda, we have Letitia Wright as Shuri and Winston Duke as M’Baku. Tenoch Huerta Mejía, who played King Ch’ah Toh Almehen, a.k.a. Namor the Sub-Mariner, in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is coming back. Several Thunderbolts* cast members are present and accounted for: Sebastian Stan as James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr / Ghost, and Lewis Pullman as Robert “Bob” Reynolds / Sentry. And from the X-Men films: Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto, Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Henry “Hank” McCoy / Beast, Alan Cumming as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler, Rebecca Romijn as Raven Darkholme / Mystique, James Marsden as Scott Summers / Cyclops, and Channing Tatum as Remy LeBeau / Gambit.
We’ve seen another long list of actors who are RUMORed to be joining them (Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk, Benedict Wong as Sorcerer Supreme Wong, Brie Larson as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel, Don Cheadle as James Rhodes / War Machine, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye, Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Ke Huy Quan as Ouroboros, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, Will Poulter as Adam Warlock, Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams / Ironheart, Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie, Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams / Wonder Man, Kathryn Newton as Cassie Lang, Wunmi Mosaku as B-15, Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau, Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, Halle Berry as Ororo Munroe / Storm, Kai Zen as Phyla, Owen Wilson as Mobius, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Charlize Theron as Clea, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon, Vin Diesel as Groot, and Maria Bakalova as Cosmo), but no further casting has been confirmed.
Notably absent is Tom Holland’s Peter Parker / Spider-Man, but we’ve previously heard that he won’t be in Avengers: Doomsday because Spider-Man: Brand New Day takes place at the same time as this film’s events are playing out. There had been question as to whether or not Chris Pratt would be able to fit the movie into his schedule, as he’s also going to be spending “six or seven months” of the year working on The Terminal List season 2, but maybe he found a way to make an appearance.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo, a.k.a. the Russo Brothers, are at the helm of Avengers: Doomsday, working from a screenplay by frequent collaborator Stephen McFeely. They’ll also be directing Avengers: Secret Wars, which will be filming immediately after Doomsday.
What do you think of the rumor that Marvel is looking to cast a new Ghost Rider for Avengers: Doomsday? Would you like this rumor to turn out to be true? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
