Sonic the Hedgehog star James Marsden has addressed the return of his classic X-Men hero in the upcoming Marvel blockbuster Avengers: Doomsday, despite the character’s previous on-screen demise.
Marsden will once again suit up as Cyclops, the goggled X-Man, in next year’s Doomsday — marking his first appearance as the character in well over a decade.
But how will Marsden — and a selection of his other fellow Fox Universe X-Men — be introduced into the MCU? And didn’t he die that one time, back in X-Men: The Last Stand? Speaking to Vanity Fair, the actor has now addressed his superhero return for the first time, and dropped a few clues.
“I’m getting a little long in the tooth to put on the superhero costume,” Marsden said, when asked how it felt to be back. “I was excited because you’re a part of something gigantic, and I’ve spent 20 years listening to people say,’when are you coming back? When are you coming back? Are you coming back?'”
“I’m dead,” Marsden continued. “Well, maybe not.”
Here, Marsden seems to be referring to the fact his character did indeed die in 2006’s The Last Stand — Marsden’s last major appearance in the role — only to be resurrected in 2014’s Days of Future Past, the enjoyable time-travelling sequel where Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine ends up rewriting history, handily erasing a lot of the less-popular moments of the previous X-Men films.
The end of that film features a brief cameo from Marsden, alongside other original X-Men such as Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey (another Doomsday returnee) and Kelsey Grammer’s Beast (who already returned in The Marvels) alive and well back in their original timeline.
It’s presumably this timeline, or universe, which we saw Monica Rambeau end up in, being examined by Beast in The Marvel’s post-credits scene. And it seems likely that the search for Monica — or at least the multiversal, incursion-sparking shenanigans she was a part of — may be the key to why the MCU’s Avengers end up in the X-Men universe en masse.
Early filming leaks from the Avengers: Doomsday set appeared to feature a battle scarred X-Mansion, while another photo appeared to show Marsden interacting with a famous MCU face behind the scenes. And then there’s actor/Traitors US host Alan Cumming, who has also spoiled the fact that at one point his character Nightcrawler from X2: X-Men United will fight Pedro Pascal’s Mister Fantastic.
Officially, all we know is that Marsden and Janssen are among a smattering of classic X-Men actors confirmed to appear, which also includes Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier, Ian McKellan as Magneto and Rebecca Romijn as Mystique.
“I’m going to have a tough time struggling to get into costume if they waited a couple more years,” Marsden continued. “So it’s been a blast. It really has. It’s been a nice little homecoming to a role that really put me on the map. It was the first real event project that I was ever a part of, and a very beloved character, this icon from the comics. And so to step back into that role was pretty special.”
Will Marsden and the rest of the X-Men manage to stay alive throughout the events of Doomsday? Well, that remains to be seen. What we do know, however, is that Marvel is already planning a fresh X-Men reboot with a new, younger cast — perhaps suggesting that fans should enjoy Marsden’s time back alive as Cyclops now, while they still can.
Image credit: Pierre Suu/WireImage.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
