Marvel Studios‘ Avengers: Doomsday is set to feature the long-awaited returns of several fan-favorite characters, including Chris Evans‘ Steve Rogers and Hayley Atwell‘s Peggy Carter. While their involvement remains unconfirmed by Marvel, a new rumor has revealed how Evans and Atwell will factor into the crossover movie’s story.
What is the latest update on Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell’s MCU return?
In trusted scrooper Alex Perez’s latest Q&A for The Cosmic Circus, he revealed that Evans’ Steve Rogers and Atwell’s Peggy Carter will be “forced out of retirement” to help aid the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four in their “end of the world” fight against Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom, noting that “a hero’s job is never done.”
Both Evans and Atwell were reported to have joined the cast of Avengers: Doomsday in December 2024. However, neither actor was part of Marvel Studios’ viral casting announcement live stream for Doomsday back in March, which confirmed the first 27 actors that will appear in the crossover movie. This list included Marvel Cinematic Universe veterans like Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, and Wyatt Russell, as well as relative newcomers like Vanessa Kirby, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Simu Liu, and Lewis Pullman.
The live stream also revealed that Doomsday would feature six actors from 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise — Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, and James Marsden — as well as Channing Tatum, who portrayed X-Men mutant Gambit in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine.
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At the time of writing, it remains to be seen which versions of Evans’ Steve Rogers and Atwell’s Peggy Carter will appear in Doomsday. Evans’ last appearance as Steve Rogers was in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, which ended with the character going back in time to live out his life with Peggy, resulting in present-day Steve becoming much older, yet still spry. As for Atwell, she’s portrayed variants of Peggy, in both live-action and animation, who have taken the Super Soldier Serum and become the superhero Captain Carter, most recently in the third and final season of What If…?
The Russo Brothers are back in the director’s chairs for Avengers: Doomsday, which is currently scheduled to hit theaters on December 18, 2026, as part of Phase 6 of the MCU.
(Source: The Cosmic Circus)
