‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Cast Snub Has Fans Asking Where the Eternals Went
Marvel’s next mega crossover is shaping up to be one of the biggest ensemble films in franchise history, but one glaring absence has fans scratching their heads. With the ‘Avengers: Doomsday‘ cast list now public, viewers are combing through the names looking for any hint of the ‘Eternals’ squad, and so far, they are coming up empty.
The film is stacking heroes from three different corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, yet the cosmic team introduced back in 2021 appears to have been left off the guest list entirely. That has left plenty of fans wondering whether Sersi, Ikaris, and the rest of the gang are simply being saved for later, or whether the studio has quietly moved on from them.
‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Cast List Comes Up Empty for Eternals
Marvel Studios revealed the sprawling roster for ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ in a livestream, and the names ranged from longtime Avengers to a full reunion of the original ‘X-Men’ cast. Returning actors announced included Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth and Anthony Mackie, alongside stars from ‘Thunderbolts’, ‘The Fantastic Four’, and Shang-Chi.
The reveal also brought back Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, James Marsden as Cyclops, Channing Tatum as Gambit, and Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, which turned out to be one of the bigger surprises of the whole announcement.
Notably absent from any of it was a single member of the ‘Eternals’ team. According to one industry breakdown, Marvel unveiled the first ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ cast members, including Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, and that wave of reveals never circled back to include Sersi, Ikaris, or any of their fellow immortals.
Why Fans Expected the Eternals To Show Up
The confusion makes sense given how ‘Eternals’ ended. The film ended on a massive cliffhanger, with a Celestial set to judge humanity’s fate, and post credit scenes introducing Harry Styles as Eros and teasing Blade and Black Knight. That is not a small setup to just leave dangling.
One outlet pointed out that the movie left behind a group of Eternals looking to warn their brethren on other worlds about the possibility of Celestials being born out of their planets, the introduction of Eros, and Dane Whitman discovering the Ebony Blade, which would transform him into the Black Knight of Marvel comic canon. Those are exactly the kinds of threads a project like ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ would typically be built to pay off.
Instead, the character list confirms that Thena, Sersi, Ikaris, Druig, Makkari, Phastos, Sprite, Kingo, Ajak, and Gilgamesh have not been seen since Eternals, unless you count the post credits scene teasing Eros, played by Harry Styles, who has similarly not resurfaced. For a film built around a multiversal collision, that is a lot of unfinished business sitting on the shelf.
Lauren Ridloff Addresses the Eternals Snub Directly
The clearest answer so far has come straight from one of the cast members. Makkari actress Lauren Ridloff was asked point blank whether she or any of her castmates would be popping up in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’.
Speaking with The Direct at South by Southwest, Ridloff replied that it was not likely when asked if she would be showing up alongside the Eternals in the new film. It is about as direct a no as fans are going to get from someone actually involved in the franchise.
That comment lines up with everything else being reported. One report even noted that Marvel Studios confirmed twenty seven actors for Avengers Doomsday, and not one of them came from the Eternals movie. Combine that with the fact that a sequel has not moved forward, and it starts to feel less like an oversight and more like a decision.
What This Means for the Eternals’ Future in the MCU
It is worth remembering that ‘Eternals’ has had a rocky road since its release, and that context matters here. The film has been grouped among some of the more poorly received recent MCU entries, alongside The Marvels, Black Widow, and Captain America Brave New World, with a mixed critical response.
Some analysts think the sheer size of ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ may simply be the real culprit rather than any creative grudge. One piece speculated that Marvel may have simply thought any Eternals character would be lost in the crowd given how many heroes are already packed into the film. It is also worth noting the Eternals are not the only group missing entirely, since that same report mentioned no representation from ‘The Marvels’ either.
Others see a silver lining further down the road. Because Richard Madden still has ties to the Russo brothers through unrelated projects, some fans are holding out hope that a few Eternals could eventually resurface in Avengers Secret Wars instead, even if ‘Doomsday’ turns out to be a dead end for them.
For now, though, the situation looks pretty clear. The ‘Eternals’ are sitting this one out, and whether that changes for ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ or never happens at all seems to depend on how Marvel wants to handle a team that introduced a lot of cosmic stakes without a clear plan to follow through on them.
With ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ set to bring together heroes from across the multiverse this December, do you think leaving the Eternals out entirely was the right call, or should Marvel have found room for at least one of them before their story threads are forgotten for good?
