Marvel's Announcement

So long story short, at around 11 AM EST Marvel Entertainment started a live stream. I've been keeping track almost since the beginning (I was on YouTube anyway watching a Let's Play while I work) and it appears that the announcement is just casting for Avengers: Doomsday done in the most circuitous way possible.

For those who don't want to watch, basically all the stream amounts to is footage of chairs with people's names on them. Every ten minutes or so, the camera will pan to the right to reveal the next cast member. Again, this has been going on since 11 AM. So far (as of writing) the cast who have been revealed are:

• Chris Hemsworth (Thor)
• Vanessa Kirby (Invisible Woman)
• Anthony Mackie (Captain America)
• Sebastian Stan (The Winter Soldier)
• Letitia Wright (Black Panther)
• Paul Rudd (Ant-Man)
• Wyatt Russell (USAgent)
• Tenoch Huerta Mejia (Namor)
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Thing)
• Simu Liu (Shang-Chi)
• Florence Pugh (Black Widow)
• Kelsey Grammer (Beast)
• Lewis Pullman (Sentry)
• Danny Ramirez (Falcon)
• Joseph Quinn (The Human Torch)
• David Harbour (Red Guardian)
• Winston Duke (M'Baku)
• Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost)
• Tom Hiddleston (Loki)
• Patrick Stewart (Professor X)
• Ian McKellen (Magneto)
• Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler)
• Rebecca Romijn (Mystique)
• James Marsden (Cyclops)
• Channing Tatum (Gambit)
• Pedro Pascal (Mr. Fantastic)
• Robert Downey Jr. (Dr. Doom)

Now there aren't a ton of surprises here. There are a few, especially to be confirmed at this junction, like Kelsey Grammer coming back as Beast and Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor, but a lot of these feel like foregone conclusions. Obviously, Captain America was going to be in this movie, as was Thor and Shang-Chi. Why are we wasting so much time with this?

The big question I have now is what the big reveal will be? We know Robert Downey Jr. is back as Doctor Doom, I don't think Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, or Patrick Stewart would be big reveals warranting an event like this so who is going to be in this movie that will make this whole thing worth it? Also, when are we going to address Captain Marvel or Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop, or Loki, all of whom could reasonably be expected to be in this film?

The big thing about this reveal is that it certainly feels like the asterisk in The Thunderbolts* is just that it's really The Avengers. A good amount of the cast is here already so we are going to supplement Val's Avengers with the "real" Avengers.

I will keep this page updated as more names are revealed (to the best of my ability since I'm at work and will be updating from my phone).