Marvel has confirmed the lineup of heroes that Anthony Mackie’s Captain America will lead into battle when Avengers: Doomsday premieres next month.
Which portion of the big team-up movie’s ensemble cast will fall specifically into the Avengers camp was confirmed by Empire. During an interview with some of the movie’s cast and crew, the minds behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe talked about what each hero is bringing into the fight and which camp they have ultimately fallen into.
With so many different teams from across the MCU multiverse to keep track of, you may have been a bit confused about who was fighting who and which superpowered being was on whose side. For Mackie, returning as Captain America means leading a new team, and that team now officially encompasses him, Falcon (Danny Ramirez), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Shang-Chi (Simu Liu).
The full team includes faces new and old as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes band together to fight off Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom. It’ll be far from Mackie’s first rodeo as Sam Wilson, but donning the Captain America mantle represents a completely new moment not only for himself but for the characters he’s leading. He opened up about the role change during the interview.
“In Endgame, Steve gave him the shield and says, ‘You need to be the leader of the Avengers,'” he said. “Now you get to see more of him leading the charge with everyone into battle.”
Although we know little about what exactly Doctor Doom’s master plan entails, we do know that the primary Avengers team will have some help. Classic X-Men characters and the recently established Fantastic Four will be there to help, too, as will the motley crew of half-heroes known as the New Avengers. The group will almost certainly clash with the classic Avengers lineup, with wild cards like Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) sure to throw a wrench into things, too.
There’s… a lot going on in the MCU, but Avengers: Doomsday will give everyone a chance to get their act together. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige also explained what kind of team viewers can expect.
“We’re coming out of years of seemingly no organized Avengers team, and that’s exactly when they face these incursions,” he said, referencing a post-credits scene from the recently released Avengers: Endgame Encore. “That’s always fun, to put your heroes on the back foot.”
Avengers: Doomsday is set to premiere December 18, 2026, meaning we’re only a little more than a month away from its release date. Despite there being so little time left, Marvel has shared quite a bit about the project in the lead-up to its launch. Just yesterday, we learned that Deadpool and Wolverine stars Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds have writing credits on the movie. Feige also debunked one of the biggest theories regarding potential connections between Downey’s Tony Stark and Doctor Doom.
For more, you can read Mackie’s retelling of how he first read that he’d take over as Captain America. You can also watch the commercial that some fans think contains hints about the plot of next month’s movie.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
