Something hasn’t made sense about Avengers: Doomsday since Marvel Studios made us spend a whole day staring at empty chairs. The film will bring together the MCU and Fox’s X-Men cinematic universe, yet the latter will be missing three of its most important members. Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, and Anna Paquin are somehow not part of the crossover event’s massive cast. Their omission seems strange at best and ludicrous at worst. How can Marvel bring back just about every other big X-Men star, especially all the men but not those three women? Maybe because that’s just what they want us to think. And we did until year’s San Diego Comic-Con, when they Marvel might have subtly told us what’s really going on – those three might appear in Avengers: Doomsday as Latverian witches.
Marvel used its booth at San Diego Comic-Con 2026 to make sure MCU fans had a new theory to obsess over for the next five months. The studio filled its floor space with superhero costumes and scenery we expect to see in Avengers: Doomsday. The only surprise was the most intriguing display was a robed female mannequin adorned with Doom accessories that Marvel called “Latverian witch.” Over the course of the first three days, the masked figures robes changed colors—purple, green, and orange/brown—until Doom himself replaced them on day four.
These three mysterious figures pretty clearly appear to be three witches powerful enough to serve the most dangerous sorcerer in the multiverse. The obvious question Marvel wants all of us to ask is who might be under those masks. Who would Victor von Doom even want to recruit/entrance to his cause? The MCU is rich with witches these days, and with no obvious comic book equivalents the Latverian witches could be a whole lot of people. Some make more sense than others.
Charlize Theron’s purple-clad, incursion-fighting Clea is an obvious candidate. Same with Sophie Di Martino’s green-wearing Loki variant Sylvie. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange can’t be ruled out, either. And even if Marvel didn’t put a red robe on its Comic-Con mannequin, Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch is among the biggest possiblities.
(We also can’t rule out there being more than three Latverian witches. This is a Russos brothers’ movie, after all. It wouldn’t shock us if we got six colorful Doom servants with each representing one of the Infinity Stones. But that’s a theory for another day…)
For all of the many major characters who make sense as Doom witch “allies,” it’s impossible not to wonder if these three masked characters are the answer to the biggest question we have about this movie’s cast: where in Mephisto’s hell are three of the most important X-Men? Why, as they both said, did Marvel not even reach out to Famke Janssen and Halle Berry? Why would the studio not grant Anna Paquin’s wish to finally fly on screen so she could join her former X-Men costars?
It makes no sense. It has never made any sense. Which might be the point. After the complete failure to even remotely hide the appearance of both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marvel might have tried a very different tactic to hold back some major cameos this time. (Especially since it’s easier to hide surprises when your cast is already 500 deep.) Why wouldn’t Marvel want to hold back that Jean Grey, Storm, and Rogue are powerful servants of Doom? That would/will be a true “holy shit” moment. Think about how fun it was when Spider-Man did pull off a secret, the appearance of J.K. Simmons in Far From Home.
This really starts to feel more plausible when you remember one of Storm’s monikers is the Weather Witch. Jean Grey’s powers are certainly enough to serve as a Latverian witch. The only real thorn in this theory’s side is Rogue, who no one would consider a witch. Sure, Doom could name anyone he wants/imbues/enhance with the powers of a witch. But she doesn’t have abilities on her own that seem witch-like the way Storm and Jean/Phoenix’s do, you know? All Rogue can do is…hold on I want to make sure I have this right
….Rogue can touch people and “absorb memories, powers, and personality traits from others.”
Oh.
Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel Secret Wars won’t feel complete if X-Men‘s Jean Grey, Storm, and Rogue aren’t part of this multiversal clash. It never made any sense they wouldn’t be. But it does if Victor von Doom doesn’t want us to know the truth about his Latverian witches just yet.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He’s ready to get hurt by another theory. You can follow Mikey on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.