X-Men star Famke Janssen has said that Marvel Studios “made a mistake” by neglecting to send her an invitation to reprise her role as Jean Grey in Avengers: Doomsday.
The actress, who played the telekinetic Mutant in the 2000s X-Men trilogy as well as follow-up films like Days of Future Past, shared her feelings about the state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) at SpaceCon. While many of her former castmates are confirmed to return, and despite previous reports to the contrary, she said she’s sitting out for this year’s Avengers movie, whether she likes it or not.
“I am so bad at keeping secrets that I always say to everyone, ‘I’m the worst actor in the world because it’s all on my face,'” Janssen said when asked if she was good at keeping secrets amid casting rumors for the new MCU movie. “You right away will read it. So, I mean, I think they made a mistake, but hey, who am I? I’m just a little me who thinks that.”
Janssen’s Jean Grey has appeared in plenty of pre-MCU comic book movies and is one of the central characters in the X-Men films. When it was eventually confirmed that other X-Men stars like actors like Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, and James Marsden would return for Avengers: Doomsday as Beast, Professor X, Magneto, Nightcrawler, Mystique, and Cyclops, respectively, many believed she would soon put back on her superhero suit, too.
Although she’s expressed interest in stepping back into the mind of Jean Grey in the past, Janssen has insisted that she will not appear in the superhero team-up film when it premieres this December. She’s even gone as far as to say that Marvel has “never ever” asked her to return.
“I should be flattered, I suppose, that this character has resonated with people,” she said last November. “It’s been so long, but it’s nice that people are still talking about her. I’m sure every single time there’s a new movie that they’re doing, like [is it] Doomsday? … it’ll come up again.”
Marvel hasn’t said why fan-favorite characters like Janssen’s Jean Grey are being left out of Avengers: Doomsday, but fans surely have some theories. Many believe Sadie Sink is set to play a new version of the character in next month’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, for example. Should that theory pan out, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see her take the reins in Doomsday or another future MCU project, though nothing has been confirmed in that regard quite yet.
Avengers: Doomsday will see Robert Downey Jr. take over as Doctor Doom when it premieres December 18, 2026. While much will be revealed when it finally premieres, Marvel is surely saving some surprises for Avengers: Secret Wars, which will arrive one year later on December 17, 2027. For now, those hoping to see Janssen as Jean Grey are better off revisiting films like X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand.
Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).