The Marvel actor Rebecca Romijn, who played Mystique in the original X-Men films, has confirmed a worrying rumour about the production of next year’s Avengers: Doomsday: despite filming for several months now, the movie does not have a finished script.
Romijn is one of a number of original X-Men stars who will reprise their famous roles in next year’s blockbuster, which will see characters from films including The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts* and Black Panther team up to battle super-villain Doctor Doom.
Speaking at the San Diego Comic Con on Saturday (26 July), Romijn was asked whether she had finished filming Doomsday, and replied that she wasn’t sure.
“The script hasn’t – they haven’t finished writing it,” she said. “It’s been very, very fun, and we don’t know yet. They keep everything very close to the vest themselves in an effort to keep everything under wraps.”
Romijn’s comments seemingly confirm speculation, started by various film bloggers in April, that Doomsday is more or less being written on the fly.
This was further hinted at when Marvel announced in May that Doomsday was being delayed from its originally announced release date of 1 May, 2026, to 18 December, 2026.
In an awkward twist, the filmmaker James Gunn – who wrote and directed Superman and is currently in charge of DC’s slate of forthcoming movies – said in June that the film industry is dying due to an epidemic of “people making movies without a finished screenplay”.
Gunn pointed to the decision he and his co-chair Peter Safran made about an unnamed DC movie that was gearing up for production, but which the pair axed due to its script.
“Everybody wanted to make the movie,” he told Rolling Stone. “It was greenlit, ready to go. The screenplay wasn’t ready. And I couldn’t do a movie where the screenplay’s not good.”
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Romijn will reunite with many of her X-Men co-stars in the film, including Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto) and James Marsden (Cyclops).
Also returning is actor Alan Cumming, who played mutant Nightcrawler in 2003’s X2, and who seemingly spoiled a scene from the new film during an interview in May.
In 2024 it was announced that Doctor Doom will be played in the movie – and its 2027 follow-up Avengers: Secret Wars – by Robert Downey Jr, who previously portrayed Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which was released in cinemas this week, also included a tease of the new film in its post-credits sequence.
