Patrick Stewart played Professor Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness after being killed off in Logan, while Ian McKellen last played Magneto in X-Men: Days of Future Past. The celebrity affair doesn’t stop there, though. The dynamic duo are set to be joined by Kelsey Grammer, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, Alan Cumming, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Paul Rudd, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, and Channing Tatum, among many... many more. “I can’t say about what Charles’ future might possibly hold,” Stewart told Entertainment Tonight. The actor then revealed McKellen’s reaction to Xavier’s return in Doctor Strange 2, which brought Stewart out of X-Men retirement for the first time since 2017’s Logan. “Actually, it went very well. He did say something like [‘Hey, I would’ve done this!’], yes, that’s true,” Stewart said. “But we’re not done, Sir Ian and myself. We’re… we got plans.” The film will be directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, who have previously directed four films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “The only thing I’ll say about the movie is this: we love villains who think they are the heroes of their own stories,” Joe Russo said in a recent interview with The Playlist. “That’s when they become three-dimensional and when they become more interesting. And when you have an actor like Robert Downey Jr, you have to create a well-shaped, three-dimensional character for the audience. That’s where a lot of our focus is going.”

The film is set to release in May 2026, with the sequel Avengers: Secret Wars to follow in May 2027.