This morning fans were treated to yet another look at Avengers: Doomsday with a third character teaser. This one was a bit more significant than the others though. We got our first glimpse at the original X-Men in the MCU!

 

Entering the halls of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters was pure nostalgia as it looks like the same set used more than 20 years ago. Why does it look dilapidated? Only time will tell. It's also comforting seeing Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen together again onscreen. It felt like reuniting with old friends, and the fact that the two are indeed old friends IRL, just sells the emotion even more.

As exciting as this is, one moment seems to be topping it in the YouTube comments. At the end we get a quick look at another X-Men alumni, James Marsden returning as Cyclops, but this time he's donned in the character's classic blue/yellow comic book costume which has never been adapted into live action. It seems as though someone has been listening to what the fans want. 

As of now we've seen a teaser for Steve Rogers, that we already shared a few honest thoughts on, Thor, whose return doesn't feel as forced since he already had a movie post-Endgame, and now the X-men. For Marvel fans, this is something we've waited decades for. 

After the success of Avengers (2012), Marvel fans were ecstatic. Marvel Studios pulled off their first team-up movie and all anyone could talk about was who they wanted to see Marvel give the Avengers treatment to next. Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, and the X-Men were names thrown around quite often but there was one problem at the time: Marvel Studios did not have the rights to make movies for these characters.

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Spider-Man was owned by Sony, and The Fantastic Four and X-Men were both owned by 20th Century Fox. Well after many years and most likely many meetings and negotiations, Marvel finally was able to get all of its star heroes under one roof. Of course we've already gotten an entire Spider-Man trilogy as well as other team-up movie appearances, The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) was released last Summer, now all that's left is for Marvel Studios to tackle the X-Men. 

Since the acqusition of 20th Century Fox by Disney, we've gotten little X-Men teasers in MCU projects over the years. Patrick Stewart famously portrayed an alternate timeline version of Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) before he was killed off. Kelsey Grammer's Beast made a cameo in The Marvels (2023). Then of course there was Deadpool and Wolverine (2024), technically the first X-Men movie from Marvel Studios, but we never got to see these characters interact with any Avengers that we already know and love. 

At this point, we don't know the extent of the team's role in the movie, but based on the amount of the original cast that's returning, one can assume it's pretty significant. While yes, this latest teaser does have me a bit more excited than Rogers' announcement, I'm still a little cautious as throwing an entire cast of old characters into a movie can easily be construed as fan service.

I'm excited to see some familiar faces, but I hope the larger narrative over this movie and Secret Wars sets up a new, fresher X-Men team for us to follow because we can't hold onto the past forever.