Whoops! Legendary X-Men comic book writer Chris Claremont has apparently(?!) dropped massive leaks and spoilers for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Claremont, who is known as the most famous X-Men comic writer of all time, recently appeared at a panel at the Huntsville Pop Culture Expo 2025 and talked about the MCU.
We can guess that Claremont might know specific details about the flicks due to getting credit for writing the X-Men, similar to how Jim Starlin knew about Thanos in Infinity War and Endgame.
Marvel Studios announced the cast of Avengers: Doomsday, which includes the Fox X-Men actors, and of course, Kevin Feige has confirmed a new age of mutants will be following Secret Wars, likely to in part adapt some of Claremont’s comics.
Obvious spoiler warning for what follows.
Avengers: Secret Wars spoilers
Robert Downey Jr. playing multiple characters
Claremont drops the bomb Robert Downey Jr. is playing multiple characters. It’s already known RDJ will be back as Doctor Doom, but Claremont says Robert Downey Jr. is playing four characters:
Has anyone seen the commercial for the 50 superhero, 4 super villain — not X-Men movie, almost, sounds like it, you better believe it — the Marvel movie that’s in production now? I mean, we’ve got Robert Downey Jr. playing evil person, Iron Man — wait, that’s confusing — and then he’s playing two other roles.
Chris Evans also playing multiple characters
Likewise, it has been rumored Chris Evans is back, and according to Claremont, Evans will also be playing multiple characters including Captain Hydra:
But then Chris Evans is playing Captain America, young Captain America, evil Captain America, Captain Hydra or something like that… Lord Hydra, whatever… It’s like, why didn’t they just cast the original Avengers as all the characters? Villains, you know, assistants, sidekicks.
Scarlet Witch returning
Claremont also confirms Elizabeth Olsen will be back as Scarlet Witch, even though she said she is not:
Apparently, uh, after denying it viferously for at least a year — um, what’s-her-face is coming back as, uh, Widow — not the Widow — Scarlett… no, not Scarlett Johansson… um, what’s-her-face… you had the giant rockfall on Scarlet Witch — oh, Elizabeth! Scarlet Witch, right.
I mean, so she’s coming back not only as Scarlet Witch but a good Scarlet Witch, you know? So I don’t know if that means that, uh, the Vision’s coming back.
Famke Janssen is back
Another bomb dropped by Claremont is that Famke Janssen, who played Jean Grey in the Fox Marvel X-Men movies, will be back. Claremont says she will be back as Phoenix. It’s my understanding that one of Feige’s favorite X-Men stories from the comics is The Phoenix Saga, of course written by Claremont:
Um, it’s like all the original X-Men are coming back. For two weeks, we didn’t know if Famke Janssen would come back, but now Famke Janssen is coming back — but she’s coming back as Phoenix, you know? It’s like…
Psylocke coming back
Claremont says Psylocke will also be returning for Avengers: Doomsday and/or Secret Wars but she’s not Asian, so that sounds like Claremont knows definite specifics about what’s happening. Olivia Munn played Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse who happens to be Chinese-Vietnamese, so maybe Munn won’t be back in the role but a new actress:
And, uh, apparently, uh, Psylocke is coming back — but she’s no longer Asian, still wearing the same outfit.
Big Wolverine info
Chris Claremont continues dropping big bombs, but interestingly enough, he says this one is a rumor, so maybe it’s discussions he had with people in the industry, as I believe, it hasn’t hit the net as of yet. Clarement says Wolverine kills off an important character:
Um, and there’s a rumor that Wolverine’s going to kill somebody important — which would just — I’m sitting here thinking: why are you going to do this and make us wait for three years for the first X-Men movie? Why don’t you just make this the first X-Men movie? Who cares about the Avengers? [Applause] It’s only been 20 years — get it right now, you know?
Fantastic Four
Claremont continues with comments about the Fantastic Four, which is something we already knew — that the MCU won’t feature an origin story. The recently announced tie-in MCU comic book also confirmed the FF have been around for four years:
Oh, and the FF are coming back — oh, wait, they’re already back — or will be already back in July, and it’ll establish apparently that the FF will have been back for three years when they run into Galactus.
And it’s like, yeah, but shouldn’t he be taller? Taller? In the comic it’s like Godzilla’s taller — is taller — so why not now?
You know what it’s like to deal with Marvel continuity.
A Massive Cast of Marvel Heroes and Villains
Chris Claremont added he’s fascinated in regards to what the MCU is doing with all the characters:
And I — but I’m fascinated looking at this, and they have somewhere between 20 and 40 mainstream characters. We’re talking A+ to B+, maybe with a couple of B’s thrown in for giggles, characters in this film.
I mean, the number of cool chairs with labels on them that they will have to have for the actors to sit on while they’re waiting to be called for their scene — it would like stretch from here to, uh, you know, Mississippi.
Release info
Avengers: Doomsday gets released on May 1, 2026. Avengers: Secret Wars gets released May 7, 2027. The Russos are directing and filming is currently underway in the UK.
Source: YouTube
