‘Avengers: Doomsday’: Benedict Cumberbatch Reveals Doctor Strange Will Now Appear!!

Marvel snipers got you in their sights, have they? Benedict Cumberbatch has done a little backtracking when it comes to his Avengers: Doomsday involvement. After previously telling Variety that he wouldn’t be appearing in the upcoming Marvel blockbuster, the actor is now walking that statement back — though whether he’s being serious remains anyone’s guess. While promoting his latest film, The Thing With Feathers, at the Sundance Film Festival, Cumberbatch was asked by Business Insider if he’d received any stern emails from Marvel’s spoiler police after his initial comments about skipping the next Avengers film. And his response was… sort of clear? “I got that wrong, I am in the next one.”

If that sounds a little too easy, that’s because it probably is. When reminded that Marvel actors have a long history of playing coy about their roles (see: Andrew Garfield outright denying his Spider-Man: No Way Home return), Cumberbatch quickly doubled down on the ambiguity: “Don’t ever believe anything I say,” he added with a smirk. So, is he in the movie or not? Well, we’d bet that he is. Everyone in the MCU will have a big role to play in Doomsday, which is part one of a story next to Secret Wars, and it’ll be all hands on deck for the franchise.

What Did Benedict Cumberbatch Say Previously About ‘Doomsday’?

In a profile with Variety earlier this month, Cumberbatch told the outlet that Doctor Strange would be “taking a hiatus,” in their words, during Doomsday. “Is that a spoiler?” he asks. “F*ck it!” Cumberbatch then added that the plans for the movie had changed when Jonathan Majors, whose Kang the Conqueror had been intended to be the next Thanos — other all-powerful villains are available — in the series, was fired in 2024 after being convicted of assaulting his ex-girlfriend. Cumberbatch added that the reason he wouldn’t be part of Doomsday — to his knowledge — was to do with “the character not aligning with this part of the story.” He did, however, note that his character was going to be in “a lot of Secret Wars. He’s quite central to where things might go. They are very open to discussing where we go next.”