Marvel movie.

That said, the majority of characters confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday will formulate several teams that will combat Doom. Two of these teams have been introduced in the Marvel movies of 2025 - Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps - while another was teased in the third MCU release of that year, Captain America: Brave New World. A fourth team in Avengers: Doomsday will then be introduced via the concept of the multiverse. Interestingly, this leaves one character confirmed for the film out of the loop, which I think could be tied to the multiversal team and thus lead to the inclusion of a fifth group.

Gambit's Casting In Avengers: Doomsday Makes Him An Outlier

Gambit Does Not Belong To Any Of Doomsday's MCU Teams

The character who is seemingly singular from Avengers: Doomsday's cast is Gambit, confirmed to be played by Channing Tatum. After the popularity of Deadpool & Wolverine - and the similar popularity of Gambit in the film - it is safe to assume that this iteration of the hero is the same one that will feature in Avengers: Doomsday. However, when placing him in comparison with the rest of the actors and their characters that were revealed in Marvel's surprise cast announcement for Avengers: Doomsday, Gambit becomes somewhat of an enigma.

Actors like Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Chris Hemsworth, Simu Liu, Paul Rudd, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, and Tenoch Huerta will be part of the MCU's core Avengers team. Then there are the cast from Thunderbolts*, who will be part of the New Avengers after that film's post-credit scene. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn will make up The Fantastic Four, and Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammer, Alan Cumming, James Marsden, and Rebecca Romijn will play the X-Men involved in the story.

If Avengers: Doomsday's Gambit is the same one from Deadpool & Wolverine, his inclusion is somewhat strange. This version of Gambit existed in The Void and hinted that he did not know his past, proving him to be separate from the Avengers, the New Avengers, The Fantastic Four, and the X-Men from Fox's movie timeline outside of Deadpool and Wolverine, who are not yet confirmed for the movie. This leaves one other group from Avengers: Doomsday that Gambit could be tied to.

Avengers: Doomsday's X-Men Have Already Been Teased In The MCU

Thanks To A 2023 Marvel Movie

The group in question is the X-Men in Avengers: Doomsday's cast announcement. A vital element about this entire theory that is worth noting is that the cast announcement did not confirm which iterations of the X-Men would be involved in the story. With that in mind, I suspect they will not be the X-Men of the Fox franchise, but instead of the universe teased in The Marvels' post-credit scene.

This scene saw Monica Rambeau waking up in another universe after mending a rift in the multiverse caused by The Marvels' villain, Dar-Benn. Monica finds herself face-to-face with Hank McCoy/Beast, portrayed by none other than Kelsey Grammer from the original X-Men films. However, the inclusion of Binary, a variant of Monica's mother, Maria, is present, proving that this universe is not the same one from the Fox movies. With Kelsey Grammer being the first X-Men-related name confirmed in Avengers: Doomsday's cast announcement video, it seems logical for The Marvels' universe to be the one featured in the 2026 film.

I Think Channing Tatum's Gambit Comes From The Marvels' X-Men Universe

Explaining His Inclusion In The Film

If this vital component of the theory comes true and the X-Men confirmed in Avengers: Doomsday's cast are the same iterations of the characters from The Marvels, this would tie Gambit to proceedings. Rather than being a singular outlier in the cast, Gambit could be made a part of that universe before he was sent to The Void as seen in Deadpool & Wolverine. After all, Gambit implies he could not his past in Deadpool & Wolverine, so this would be a good answer as a way to tie disparate threads of the multiverse together.

Gambit would transition from an outlier with no real connections to anyone else in the film to a bridge between the mainline MCU, the Fox X-Men universe via Deadpool, and The Marvels' X-Men universe...

If Gambit is revealed as a member of the X-Men from The Marvels' universe and that team is the one featured in Avengers: Doomsday, this would explain his casting in the film. Gambit would transition from an outlier with no real connections to anyone else in the film to a bridge between the mainline MCU, the Fox X-Men universe via Deadpool, and The Marvels' X-Men universe. All of this, combined with a big hint from Deadpool & Wolverine's deleted scenes, could allow Gambit to bridge other characters and form a fifth Avengers: Doomsday team.

Deadpool & Wolverine's Deleted Gambit Scene Could Explain How The Marvels Are Part Of Avengers: Doomsday

Gambit Is The Link

In a deleted scene from Deadpool & Wolverine, Gambit can be seen in The Void after the film's final act. Gambit looks into the sky and the reflection of a sling ring portal is seen in his eyes before he smirks and the scene cuts to black. Ryan Reynolds posted this scene on his Instagram page, indicating that a version of it is actually in the film on one of the TVA's screens, implying it actually happened in-universe. Therefore, several possibilities are opened up.

The most obvious possibility is that Doctor Strange travels to The Void to rescue Gambit and enlist him in the fight against Doctor Doom. With Tom Hiddleston's Loki being included in Avengers: Doomsday - someone who experienced firsthand the allies you can find in The Void - he could get involved with the Avengers and alert them of this. Gambit could then recover his memories, tell Strange and the Avengers about his universe of X-Men, thus bridging the two facets of the multiverse together.

This reality occurring in Avengers: Doomsday would then reunite Monica with from her own universe after being stranded with the X-Men in the ending of The Marvels. She would then likely want to seek out Carol and Kamala, reuniting with The Marvels and forming a fifth team in Avengers: Doomsday. This theory ittedly sounds complex, but everything seems to fit together in a way that makes too much sense to be ignored. Therefore, if it does happen in Avengers: Doomsday, Gambit would find his home, become a link between heroes, and reunite others to make yet another team to face off against Doom.