Avengers: Doomsday has such a stacked cast that a livestream announcing the roster took over five hours. Some names were more surprising than others; the Thunderbolts were always going to be there, as were other new additions to the MCU, like the Fantastic Four. But the sheer amount of X-Men actors was unexpected: it seemed like everyone, from Ian McKellan to Alan Cumming to James Marsden, was appearing in Doomsday. Now, a new leak claims that one of these actors won’t just be returning to their role for one final time; this could be the last acting job of their illustrious career.
On his YouTube show, leaker Kristian Harloff claimed that Avengers: Doomsday won’t just be the last time Sir Patrick Stewart appears as Charles Xavier, but his last acting role ever. This is an unconfirmed rumor, but it wouldn’t be a huge surprise. Patrick Stewart shot to nerd fame in the 1990s and 2000s with his roles in Star Trek and X-Men, but he’s now 85 years old and has taken fewer roles in recent years, often opting for cameos or voiceover roles, like his star turn as Poop in The Emoji Movie. His biggest commitment, Star Trek: Picard, ended in 2023.
But Charles Xavier has always seemed to tempt Stewart back to the silver screen. Of the six live-action movie roles he’s taken since 2017, two have been different forms of Professor X. He played Xavier in Logan in 2017, and then, in 2022, he returned to the role as a multiversal variant in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
These appearances had one thing in common: Charles was dead by the time the credits rolled. If Doomsday really is Stewart’s farewell to the character, and acting itself, then this appearance could very well continue this pattern, giving Stewart and one of his most famous roles the heart-rending sendoff both great men deserve. There are dozens of familiar characters in Doomsday, after all, and it’s unlikely everyone makes it out alive, no matter how esteemed their actors are by sci-fi fans around the world.
