Christopher Abbott Has a Blunt Answer About Professor X in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’
Few crossover events have teased as many returning faces as ‘Avengers: Doomsday’. The film is set to bring back a good chunk of the Fox-era mutants, with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Kelsey Grammer and Alan Cumming all returning. For longtime fans, it feels like a proper goodbye to an era.
At the same time, Marvel Studios has been quietly assembling a brand-new class of mutants for the future. The big reveal came at D23, where Christopher Abbott was announced as the new Charles Xavier. That makes him the third actor to play Professor X in a live-action film after Stewart and James McAvoy.
That overlap has left plenty of fans wondering whether the old and new versions of Xavier might share the screen. Abbott, for one, has now given an answer that is hard to misread. In a clip shared by Marvel Updates, citing Rolling Stone, he says: “I’m not in that. I gotta do the ‘X-Men’ movie first before any of that stuff… No coyness, I’m not in that movie.”
The exchange appears to have started with a bit of confusion. When the interviewer clarified that they were asking about ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ Abbott replied quickly that he is not in it. His tone suggests he is not playing games, though Marvel actors have not always been the most reliable narrators.
Just ask Marsden. The actor told Jimmy Kimmel “no” when asked about Marvel in a 2025 interview, only for Marvel to confirm his return in March of that year. He later admitted he had lied about it, joining a long tradition of superhero stars who stonewall reporters until the studio gives the green light.
Still, there are reasons to take Abbott at his word. Stewart is already confirmed to return in the film, so Marvel does not need a second Xavier to anchor the X-Men portion of the story. Abbott’s own comments also frame his debut as something that belongs to the reboot rather than to the crossover.
That reboot is still a ways off. The new ‘X-Men’ film is listed for 2028, and it isn’t expected to arrive before ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’. ‘Doomsday’ arrives Dec. 18, 2026, with ‘Secret Wars’ following on Dec. 17, 2027, which leaves a full year of speculation about whether Abbott might surface later.
The reboot’s creative team and cast are already taking shape. The script comes from ‘Beef’ creator Lee Sung Jin and ‘The Bear’ co-creator Joanna Calo, and Abbott said he had yet to read it. His co-stars reportedly include Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue and Maya Boyd as Storm.
Abbott is not entirely new to Marvel. He previously played The Foreigner in 2024’s ‘Kraven the Hunter’, which makes his move to the mutant side of the franchise a notable step up. He has also been candid about how daunting the moment felt, with reports saying he sensed at the D23 announcement that many people in the crowd did not know who he was.
None of that changes the central question for fans. If Abbott is truly sitting out ‘Doomsday,’ then Stewart’s Xavier will carry the weight of the Fox-era send-off alone. It also means the first real look at the new Professor X will have to wait for his own movie.
Whether that holds up is anyone’s guess, especially with Marvel’s long record of secrecy. For now, the answer on the record is a firm no, delivered with enough certainty that it will be hard to walk back.
