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Marvel Studios spent years laying the groundwork for the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s crossover with Fox’s Marvel movies. Professor X (Patrick Stewart) turned up as an Illuminati variant in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Beast (Kelsey Grammer) greeted Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) in The Marvels‘ 2023 post-credits scene. Deadpool & Wolverine then handled the heaviest lifting in 2024, folding the broader Fox era, including X-Men, Fantastic Four, Blade, and Elektra, into the wider multiverse structure the MCU had already built. Avengers: Doomsday now extends that integration, placing the original 2000s X-Men cast, including Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Cyclops (James Marsden), at the center of its plot. While the crossover is exciting, fans quickly noticed the absence of era-defining mutants such as Rogue (Anna Paquin), Storm (Halle Berry), and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen).
“We won’t answer specifically,” Anthony Russo told Entertainment Tonight‘s Denny Directo when asked directly whether Doomsday would confirm the fates of Rogue, Storm, and Jean Grey. “But I will say this,” he added. “The history of the X-Men is really special to us. All of those characters are loved, and we thought a lot about their history. So, they feed into this movie in a very meaningful way.” The comment, delivered during the Russos’ San Diego Comic-Con press run, is the closest Marvel Studios has come to confirming that the three absent mutants are still accounted for in the narrative of Doomsday, even without their original actors appearing in the finished film.
Are Rogue, Storm, and Jean Grey Dead in Avengers: Doomsday?
The Russos’ carefully worded response arrives after months of blunter statements from the actresses themselves. Storm actress Berry has repeatedly and directly denied any involvement in Doomsday, promising that she was not being coy and that her character simply was not in the film, then reiterating that fans should stop expecting her name on any cast announcement. Jean Grey actress Janssen has offered a similar account, revealing that Marvel and Disney never actually approached her about reprising the role, though she remains open to returning at some point.
Doomsday‘s most recent trailer depicts the X-Mansion in ruins, with a small group of surviving mutants mourning losses following what looks like a Sentinel assault, the mutant-hunting robots that debuted in live-action during the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past. A massive robotic foot looms behind Cyclops as he fires his optic blast in the same footage, suggesting the Sentinels are the direct cause of the mansion’s destruction. If Doom’s forces or a Sentinel strike wiped out a portion of the X-Men roster before the story catches up with the Avengers, that would explain why so many original cast members are missing entirely rather than being held back for a surprise cameo.
Killing off Rogue, Storm, and Jean Grey before the story even begins would put Doomsday in an awkward position. All three rank among the most beloved female heroes in the franchise’s history, and using their deaths purely to raise the stakes for other characters would read as a clear case of fridging. That said, Storm and Jean Grey are both classified as Omega-level mutants in the comics, and Rogue’s ability to permanently absorb any mutant’s powers on contact makes her one of the more unpredictable wild cards in a fight against Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.). That means the character might have been removed from the script because they could be too powerful for the story. Then again, Magneto, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Sentry (Lewis Pullman) are all set to appear in Doomsday despite ranking among the most powerful characters in the franchise, so it’s best that the Russo Brothers give a good excuse for the female mutants’ absence.
Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to be released in theaters on December 18th.
Do you think Rogue, Storm, and Jean Grey are dead in Avengers: Doomsday, or saved for a surprise appearance later? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the Forum!
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