The Marvel calendar couldn't be more exciting right now. Fresh off three major Marvel Cinematic Universe releases - two of which have been praised for putting the MCU back on-track - the franchise has set its sights on its 2026 theatrical releases, and both are going to be big ones. Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be the first to entertain us in July while Avengers: Doomsday will close out the year in December. Needless to say, MCU fans are ready!
Both films have the potential to be billion-dollar phenomenons as both of these respective MCU subfranchises (Spider-Man and Avengers) have crossed that mark before. However, it's Avengers: Doomsday that will probably have the most lasting impact on the MCU franchise as it looks set to start tying up the ongoing arcs of the Multiverse Saga. And it will bring back Robert Downey Jr. to do so, only this time he'll be playing the villainous Doctor Doom.
The film will feature a star-studded line-up, with more unannounced actors expected to make cameo appearances and returns when it arrives in movie theaters. However, it sounds like we shouldn't expect to see one actor in the film (in spite of a potential tease of a comeback and reports that suggested he might appear).
Ryan Reynolds says he never set foot on the Avengers: Doomsday set
Ryan Reynolds has been at the heart of Avengers: Doomsday rumors for the past month, with fans speculating about whether he could reprise his role as Deadpool in the upcoming film. He is the one directly responsible for these rumors as they started after he shared an image on his social media account featuring a flag with the Avengers logo. Now that he's officially a part of the MCU, the natural question came as to whether The Merc With A Mouth could realistically appear in an Avengers movie.
But Reynolds is now the one putting a stop to these rumors, it seems, as the star recently spoke about the movie in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. When speaking about his work as a producer on John Candy: I Like Me, the topic of Avengers: Doomsday naturally came up (as it tends to with Marvel actors). Reynolds joked about inserting some jokes into the script, saying:
"There's four that I've got in there. Of course, I've written them all at home in my PJs, and nobody's seen 'em nor have I stepped foot on set. But, yeah, that's about as far as I'll go on that one."
This does officially rule out a Deadpool appearance in-person in Avengers: Doomsday at the very least. After all, the movie has been filming in the UK and there haven't been any sightings of Reynolds there recently. But there is the other side of the coin to consider here: Reynolds could be deflecting to throw the fans off the scent. Because let's be honest, Marvel fans can sense anything coming.
The emphasis on not stepping foot on the set does raise the question of whether Deadpool could make some other kind of cameo that doesn't involve being there in-person. Perhaps a cameo on his own Earth could be engineered on a completely different set during reshoots. Or perhaps Reynolds' words are indeed fact and that he's not in the film.
Reynolds also told Collider that the Avengers flag he posted an image of was "actually a variant of the flag that [they] use in Deadpool & Wolverine" adding:
"And then, you know, there's always talk. We're figuring out what's next in that world and blah, blah, blah."
Reynolds' Wade Wilson is officially a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after the release of Deadpool and Wolverine. Although the two Deadpool movies made by 20th Century Fox are still canon to his backstory (as are the X-Men movies within that franchise too), the Multiverse Saga established them as taking place on a separate Earth. But now that he knows all about the TVA, the multiverse, and the MCU, it's only a matter of time until he returns.
Although Reynolds suggested he won't appear in Avengers: Doomsday, anything can happen in these game-changing MCU movies. And let's not forget that there is Avengers: Secret Wars to look forward to in 2027, too. He is among the many names rumored to appear in that one.
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in movie theaters on December 18, 2026.