.png){kind=logo}
Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows.
The X-Men's first official Avengers: Doomsday tease confirms two major Marvel figures will finally meet after twenty-six years of never sharing the screen. Following Deadpool & Wolverine's homage to Fox's X-Men franchise, Marvel Studios' Avengers: Doomsday will see the live-action X-Men world clash with the MCU, thus delivering one of the biggest crossovers in movie history. In 2026, the original X-Men cast is officially part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Even before a full trailer is out, Marvel has confirmed which X-Men characters will return, and delivered brief glimpses at some of their updated appearances. For instance, Ian McKellen's Magneto sports long hair and Patrick Stewart's Professor X wears a green jacket with a red X logo. Most impressively, James Marsden's Cyclops wears a fully comic-accurate X-Men uniform, complete with bright yellow belts.
Cyclops Will Finally Meet (And Possibly Fight) A Sentinel On The Big Screen
Cyclops Never Interacted With A Sentinel In Fox's X-Men Movies
Besides revealing Cyclops' MCU costume, Avengers: Doomsday's X-Men teaser shows James Marsden's Cyclops shooting a huge energy blast in front of a destroyed battlefield. Right behind Cyclops, a giant character walks on top of the ruins. While this character's identity isn't confirmed yet, there's a high chance it's a Sentinel. Hence, Avengers: Doomsday will likely be the first time Cyclops and a Sentinel meet in a Marvel movie.
The Sentinels only made a small appearance as a simulation inside the Danger Room in X-Men: The Last Stand before taking on a central role in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Cyclops is absent in X-Men: The Last Stand's opening scene, and he's both too young to meet the 1970s Sentinels and long-dead by the time the 2020s Sentinels appear in X-Men: Days of Future Past. The Sentinels don't appear in the first two X-Men movies, nor do they appear in X-Men Origins: Wolverine or the franchise's final two movies.
Why a Sentinel may be walking in the ruins behind Cyclops, and why Cyclops cries in distress is yet to be revealed. Perhaps Doctor Doom uses the Sentinels to destroy the X-Mansion, or perhaps the X-Men fail to stop Doctor Doom even with the help of their own brand of Sentinels. Either way, Cyclops and Xavier's original X-Men team may finally get to meet a classic version of their robotic archnemeses.
The Classic X-Men Team Is Vastly Underused In Fox's X-Men Movies
Multiple Major X-Men Did Very Little In X-Men
The fact that Cyclops never crossed paths with a Sentinel in Fox's X-Men franchise goes to show how unbalanced the X-Men movies are. In fact, Beast, Gambit, and Nightcrawler never meet a Sentinel either, and most of the team only fight the future versions of the robots, who barely resemble their comic book counterparts. Since Wolverine is busy time-traveling, he also doesn't get to fight the Sentinels in X-Men: Days of Future Past's future timeline.
Avengers: Doomsday may be too crowded for extended action scenes involving only the X-Men, but the MCU can fill many of the voids Fox's movies left. Once Marvel Studios' X-Men reboot arrives, showcasing all major X-Men's powers in a high-octane battle sequence featuring an army of Sentinels is a no-brainer. Of course, the X-Men's comic-accurate costumes and the Sentinels' original design is something the MCU can't overlook.
Release Date December 18, 2026
-
-
Vanessa Kirby
Sue Storm / Invisible Woman
-
Johnny Storm / Human Torch
-
Ebon Moss-Bachrach
Ben Grimm / The Thing
English (US) ·