Marvel Comics/DisneyThe crew members of Avengers: Doomsday have been gifted new merch showcasing the many Marvel superheroes in the massive cast, including the returning X-Men. However, four major Avengers are missing from the line-up.
Doomsday is set to be the biggest MCU crossover event since Endgame, pulling together heroes from across the multiverse. After Kang was dropped from the movie, the Russo Brothers announced Robert Downey Jr. would return to the franchise – only as Doctor Doom instead of Tony Stark.
But he’s far from the only big name. In March 2025, Marvel had us staring at director’s chairs for five-and-a-half hours as it dropped Doomsday cast names once every 15 minutes, with the line-up including everyone from Chris Hemsworth’s Thor to the Fantastic Four and Fox’s X-Men.
New leaks are coming in thick and fast in the runup to Doomsday’s December 2026 release date, the latest arriving from SFX and makeup artist Gi Ponci, who shared a photo of a bag the crew were given featuring the superheroes in their suits.
“Simple explanation” for missing Avengers in Doomsday merch drop
While it’s an exciting tease of the cast and characters, you may have noticed some missing Avengers. They include:
- Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
- Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
- Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange
- Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel
The biggest shock is the omission of Spider-Man and Hulk – two of the most bankable Avengers. With Spider-Man: Brand New Day set to release just months before Doomsday, Tom Holland’s wallcrawler is expected to play a huge part in the MCU’s future.
It’s possible these characters are being saved for the climactic Avengers: Secret Wars, which promises to be even bigger than Doomsday. However, there could be a far simpler explanation.
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You see, the merch line-up features the superheroes who were announced during the cast reveal, so it would make sense that Marvel doesn’t want to spoil anymore names just yet.
It’s believed that there will be more big names joining the upcoming Marvel movie, with speculation circulating that Chris Evans will return in some capacity, as well as Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool.
What’s more, The Cosmic Circus’ Alex Perez reported last week that the studio is planning to keep some cast members and characters a secret right up until Doomsday’s release.
As such, it could be that Marvel is purposely leaving these names out of the merch in preparation for events like this.
This theory was put forward on Reddit after the bag drop, with one writing, “Seems to be literally just the chair reveal cast. No Danvers, Strange, Peter, Hulk etc. Interesting.”
DisneyAnother replied, “Most likely explanation – they figured that stuff would leak from the wrap parties and made a point of only including stuff that was already obvious (the Chairstream cast and whoever’s playing Franklin, who we saw in a scene from the movie used as the post-credits scene for The Fantastic Four: First Steps).”
“Or simpler explanation: this is the full main cast, and anyone not here is a cameo or small supporting role,” added a third, while a fourth chimed in, “I’m leaning with this idea as well. I think the other characters we won’t see until Secret Wars.”
Avengers: Doomsday drops in cinemas on December 18, 2026. Until then, check out our ranking of the best superhero movies ever made, every Marvel movie, and the best films of 2025 so far.