Avengers: Doomsday | Marvel hasn't finished writing its script, X-Men star says

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Rebecca Romijn, returning as Mystique in next year’s Avengers: Doomsday, suggests that the script isn’t “finished”, despite filming being underway.

Shooting began on Marvel’s expansive, majorly expensive Avengers: Doomsday in April this year, with directors Anthony and Joe Russo rushing to get the film ready for a December 2026 release date. The production’s a good few weeks into its production, then, but according to one prominent member of its huge ensemble, the script is still being written as cameras roll.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at Comic Con (via Collider), actor Rebecca Romijn was there to promote Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. When asked about her role in Avengers: Doomsday, however, Romijn, who’s reprising her turn as Mystique from the X-Men movies, expressed uncertainty.

Not only did she say she was “not quite sure” whether the Russos had filmed all of her scenes or not, but she also added that “They [the screenwriters] haven’t finished writing it. They keep everything close to the vest themselves to keep everything under wraps.”

Everything about Avengers: Doomsday is huge. As Marvel proved when it spent a day filming a set of chairs, its cast is huge. Chris Hemsworth returns as Thor, joined by the casts of this year’s Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four, numerous actors from the 20th Century Fox X-Men movies, plus too many other superheroes to list here.

The budget is huge – reckoned to be around $300m or more, with a large chunk of that spent before anything was shot. Robert Downey Jr, returning to the Marvel fold as the villainous Doctor Doom, was tempted in with a payday of $80m.

In the midst of all this, it’s up to credited screenwriters Michael Waldron and Stephen McFeely to craft a story that finds something for those characters to do – even if it’s just to show up for a one-line cameo. And if Romijn’s words were accurate, then at least some of that writing is being done on-the-fly.

This isn’t necessarily unusual for Marvel, or Hollywood movies in particular. Iron Man was reworked during filming, and Marvel boss Kevin Feige has recently talked about his penchant for suggesting adjustments to movies during production.

Some filmmakers have indicated a level or weariness over shooting without a finished script, though. Director Gareth Edwards, who suggested years ago that his first studio films, Godzilla and Rogue One, began without a completed screenplay, said he was encouraged to make this year’s Jurassic World Rebirth because David Koepp’s script felt ready to go before cameras. Similarly, James Gunn, who left Marvel to head up DC Studios and direct Superman, recently said in an episode of Video Club on YouTube, “The screenplay always has to be finished first.”

For his part, Kevin Feige said at a recent press conference that Marvel has “never started a movie without a full script and I have never been satisfied with a script that we’ve had,” but conceded that improvements are often made once filming begins – or “plussing” as he calls it.

Avengers: Doomsday is due for release on the 18th December 2026.