Avengers: Doomsday Leaves Out a Fan-Favorite X-Men Star
Fans hoping for a Jean Grey comeback in Avengers: Doomsday can stand down: X-Men veteran Famke Janssen explains why she’s not suiting up, a decade after her surprise Days of Future Past cameo.
Quick one: Famke Janssen, the original big-screen Jean Grey for a lot of fans, says she won't be in 'Avengers: Doomsday.' Not because she passed. Because Marvel never asked.
What Janssen actually said
In a new chat with Entertainment Weekly, Janssen got honest about how Jean Grey still follows her into every interview. More than a decade after she last played the character, she says the role just keeps coming up, and she's a little surprised it's the thing that always gets pulled from her conversations. She's taking it as a compliment — the character clearly stuck with people — but she also joked about the title mix-up when another new superhero movie rolls around: 'Is it Doomsday?'
On whether Marvel ever reached out about joining the MCU for 'Doomsday' (or anything else), she didn't leave much room for interpretation:
"Never. Never ever."
When we last saw her Jean
Janssen's Jean Grey hasn't been on screen since 2014's 'X-Men: Days of Future Past,' where she popped up for a brief, end-of-movie cameo.
So who is actually in 'Avengers: Doomsday'?
Even without Janssen, Marvel is loading this thing with familiar faces from the Fox-era X-Men movies. The film is directed by 'Endgame' duo Joe and Anthony Russo, with a script by Stephen McFeely, and it's pulling in a legit crossover lineup:
- Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier
- Ian McKellen as Magneto
- Kelsey Grammer as Beast
- Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler
- Rebecca Romijn as Mystique
- James Marsden as Cyclops
- Channing Tatum as Gambit
The date
'Avengers: Doomsday' hits theaters on December 18, 2026.
Bottom line: if you were holding out for Janssen's Jean, don't. Marvel never made the call.