EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studios‘ clever live five-hour-plus announcement of the cast of Avengers: Doomsday was their biggest livestream, bigger than any premiere red carpet, pulling in 275M digital views we’re told and 3.1M social mentions. The livestream began yesterday at 8AM PST and lasted for 5 hours and 27 minutes.

That number is also more than 5x the social volume of the Deadpool & Wolverine Super Bowl trailer (currently the most viewed trailer of all time) from last year.

More deets I’m told: hour over hour the audience grew to what is the most view cross platform livestream stunt.

The stunt yielded over 55 distinct trending terms on Twitter/X throughout the day with #AvengersDoomsday holding the #1 trending spot on Twitter/X for over 7 hours. After 24 hours, the official Marvel YouTube livestream was at #2 on trending.

In total 27 cast member chairs were unveiled including, but not limited to the cast of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, read Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/Thing), but also the return of 20th Century Fox/Marvel X-Men cast member OGs Patrick Stewart aka Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen aka Magneto, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, James Marsden aka Cyclops, Kelsey Grammer as Beast and Channing Tatum as Gambit.  Also cast members from this summer’s kickoff Thunderbolts*, i.e. Florence Pugh, Wyatt Russell, also play key roles in the mega ensemble MCU feature from Joe and Anthony Russo.

There were also seats set out for Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Simu Liu, Lewis Pullman, Danny Ramirez, David Harbour, Winston Duke, Hannah John-Kamen, Tom Hiddleston and Robert Downey Jr.

The stunt was a pop cultural event, spawning memes across verticals and brands (XBOX, F1 Racing, Empire State building, Merriam Webster, Minions).

But get this…everyone that was announced…there may be more. Chris Evans, you around?

Posted Downey, Jr. yesterday, “That’s what you call a deep bench of talent…actually it’s more like a row, but an extra long one…that must be it…right?”

Responded Marvel Studios’ handle, “There’s always room for more…”

Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters May 1, 2026.

The Russo Brothers’ MCU movies — Captain America: Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame have grossed over $6.7 billion at the global box office. Avengers: Endgame is the second highest grossing movie of all-time behind James Cameron’s Avatar, $2.79 billion to $2.9 billion.