For years now, the post-“Avengers: Endgame” MCU has felt like it was stretching in every direction at once, but Marvel chief Kevin Feige is finally starting to define what the payoff is supposed to be. In fresh comments tied to Fandango and Entertainment Weekly out of CinemaCon, Feige framed “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars” as connected, yes, but not as a simple rerun of the Marvel Studios formula that powered “Infinity War” and “Endgame.”
In the Fandango interview, Feige puts the first real boundary around the obvious comparison. “They relate in a very different way than ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame,’” he explained. “I think people are expecting a similar connection, and while one certainly does lead into the other, it’s in a very different way, and I will say that ‘Secret Wars’ is as ambitious a project as we’ve ever embarked on.”
The EW interview pushed further into the setup for “Doomsday.” “We’re not talking too much about story, but I think people know that the story of Doomsday is inspired by a very famous comic run in which universes are colliding, and Earths encounter one another, and different timelines encounter one another,” Feige told the outlet. “And in movie speak, what that allows us to do is get different casts from different franchises.”
That is where the X-Men come in. EW reports that Feige pointed back to his early years around 20th Century Fox’s first “X-Men” films, when he first worked around actors such as Hugh Jackman, James Marsden, and Patrick Stewart. “I was a part of the first couple many, many, many, many, many years ago,” he said. “Now that they’re back home, we thought: We have to utilize them. ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ was our first opportunity to do that and touch upon it, and it just felt like an amazing opportunity to pit multiple universes against each other, but you care about all of them.”
Feige also told the publication that the studio is building around several different eras of Marvel movie fandom at once. He pointed to “the generations of people” invested in the original X-Men cast, the original Avengers, the newer Avengers, and the “Fantastic Four,” then added, “Bringing them all together is what we have tasked the brothers with doing for us,” referring to ‘Doomsday’ directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo.
Feige also said “Doomsday” picks up where “Avengers: Endgame” left off, confirming Robert Downey Jr. returns as Victor von Doom. The currently confirmed X-Men-related cast includes Stewart, Marsden, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, Alan Cumming, Kelsey Grammer, and Channing Tatum, with all but Tatum returning to roles they originated in the Fox era.
And if there was any doubt about how central Downey and Chris Evans are to the whole design, Russo put that plainly, to Fandango: “What excited all of us was that we found a path forward that really was integral, and really requires both Chris [Evans] and Robert [Downey Jr.] for the story to be told.”
“Avengers: Doomsday” opens in theaters on December 18, 2026.
Kevin Feige reveals how #AvengersDoomsday will relate to #AvengersSecretWars, and how it is the most ambitious project they have ever worked on. pic.twitter.com/cVDJG9uhAp
— Fandango (@Fandango) April 17, 2026
Kevin Feige and Joe Russo share what it was like bringing Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans back into the MCU for #AvengersDoomsday – Only in theaters December 18. pic.twitter.com/QxrJ2MGVXG
— Fandango (@Fandango) April 17, 2026
