Doomsday’ Has ‘That Old Marvel Feeling’

• Anthony Mackie spoke to IGN about the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, saying he’s “excited” amid the return of directors Anthony and Joe Russo
• The film will also see the return of several Marvel Cinematic Universe characters and cast members from past Avengers installments
• “I feel with the script and having the Russo brothers back, it’s going to be great,” Mackie told the outlet of Doomsday

Anthony Mackie is just as excited for Avengers: Doomsday as the rest of Marvel fans!

In a conversation with IGN published Monday, April 14, the 46-year-old Twisted Metal actor said he’s “really excited for what” Doomsday “is going to be.”

“It’s going to give the audience that old Marvel feeling that they always had,” Mackie added.

Doomsday sees the return of filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo, in their first Marvel Studios feature-film directorial effort since 2019’s epic Avengers: Endgame. It will be released in the wake of some less-successful box-office efforts from Marvel in recent years, like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), The Marvels (2023) and this year’s Captain America: Brave New World.

“I feel with the script and having the Russo brothers back, it’s going to be great,” Mackie told IGN of the upcoming Doomsday.

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The fifth Avengers movie was first announced in 2022 before it was rebranded as Doomsday at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024, when Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed that Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War (2018) directors Anthony, 55, and Joe, 53, would be returning at the helm.

While the Infinity Saga revolved around Josh Brolin’s Thanos as the primary villain, the Multiverse Saga will debut Doom as the villain to beat, starting with whatever he has planned in Doomsday.

Among the cast members returning as their respective characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are Mackie as Sam Wilson/Captain America, plus Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Simu Liu (Xu Shang-Chi), Letitia Wright (Shuri), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Winston Duke (M’Baku) and many more — including Robert Downey Jr., not as his iconic Iron Man but as villain Doctor Doom.

A surprising reunion was revealed amid the March cast announcement, with X-Men stars Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan as part of the superhero project, joined by fellow X-Men alumni including Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, Kelsey Grammer and James Marsden.

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Doomsday will also include cast from this summer’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps: Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing).

Rounding out the star-studded Doomsday cast are returning Marvel actors Channing Tatum, Danny Ramirez, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Lewis Pullman and Hannah John-Kamen.

Asked about filming progress, Mackie told IGN, “We’re kicking on down the road, so everybody’s getting excited and we’re getting the band back together.”

“We’re supposed to go out this week and we’ll be out there doing it. Everybody’s excited,” he added.

Avengers: Doomsday is in theaters May 1, 2026.