Why Is Spider-Man Not In Avengers: Doomsday?
The next Avengers movie is already missing a crucial Avenger.
Marvel packed plenty of surprises into its latest casting announcement for Avengers: Doomsday. Several worlds are colliding in the upcoming team-up film, with the members of Marvel’s “sacred” cinematic universe crossing paths with characters from Fox’s X-Men timeline, and a Fantastic Four team from another universe. That Doomsday is bringing back the cast members from the most beloved superhero franchise outside of the MCU proper is more than enough reason to celebrate — but I can’t help wondering about the Marvel alums left out in the cold.
Doomsday is chock full of names people recognize, but characters that should have been shoo-ins for the crossover were notably absent from the lineup. There was no mention of Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange, Bruce Banner’s Hulk, or Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel in the casting announcement. The list of snubs is longer than it ought to be, given the scope of Doomsday, but there’s one name that fans are unanimously crying out to see: Tom Holland.
Marvel’s seemingly left a bunch of core Avengers out of Doomsday.
Holland has portrayed Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, in six MCU films, including the last two Avengers movies. Across nine years, he’s become a pillar of the franchise; he’s even set to continue his adventures in a yet-untitled Spider-Man 4. Including him in Doomsday should have been a no-brainer — after all, nearly everyone seems to be coming back for the film. And there’s the inherent drama of Holland’s Peter Parker see his idol and mentor, Tony Stark, as the Big Bad of the movie. But as Marvel unveiled its seemingly never-ending list of cast members, Holland somehow didn’t make the cut.
What exactly does this mean for Spider-Man? As Spider-Man 4 is currently in production, we know the wallcrawler is still a part of the MCU. That said, we don’t yet know where that film will fall on the release slate. It could take place after the events of Doomsday; it could also follow Peter Parker on a solo adventure that runs concurrently to the Avengers films. Either way, Holland will be back on the big screen soon enough. He might even find his way into Doomsday — maybe this isn’t the definitive cast list we think it is. Time will tell, but it’s not over just yet.
