Avengers: Doomsday leak shows the cast in new costumes

A leak of new promotional material for Avengers: Doomsday gave what looks like a first look at the cast in their costumes. It's an embroidered promotional piece featuring the characters, but it shows many comic accurate suits and new takes on costumes like Thor's. It also seems to contain exactly the cast that was revealed at the very first cast announcement. I think that may be a reason to temper expectations about a major cast addition.

The characters are arranged in four rows, so I'll go through them character by character.

Doctor Doom, Reed Richards and the Thunderbolts in the Avengers: Doomsday first row

First is Doctor Doom, with a look very similar to the high definition version that had been shown shortly before. Next is Reed Richards, who now has an updated white leather jacket with a blue inside collar over what looks like a similar tank top. They've definitely updated and modernized his costume.

Then come Bucky and Yelena Belova. We already knew their costumes from the Thunderbolts post credit scene, which was shot by the Russos and which we know is part of the Avengers: Doomsday set. Here they appear to be the same, at least at the beginning of the film.

Sadly, the character next to Yelena is blocked off. People are speculating that this is Magneto, because he doesn't appear anywhere else and because of the reddish purple color of the costume, but that's unconfirmed. Next to that figure is Hank McCoy's Beast, with the look last seen in The Marvels post credit scene. After him comes Ghost.

Thor's all black costume and Shuri's upgraded Black Panther suit

The second row opens with an updated look for Thor. His new costume is all black with two huge gold emblems, and he has short hair and a full beard. It looks like they're borrowing from the way Thor appears at the start of Avengers: Endgame, before the five year time jump, when he's in all black. I think this is an amazing look. We've even heard there might be a red cloak and hood to go with this ensemble.

Next to him is Sue Storm, who has also updated her costume. You can still see the white and blue tank top with the four underneath, but she now has a blue and white leather jacket on top, like Reed's. It's a more modernized take.

Then there's Shuri's Black Panther, with some notable upgrades. The suit looks a lot thicker than the nanotech one we're used to seeing, and there's new gold inlaid in a pattern on the chest. It also confirms that, at least for now, she's the Black Panther in this film.

Red Guardian, Patrick Stewart's Professor X and a comic accurate Cyclops

Next is an updated take on the Red Guardian costume, though like a couple of the others it looks similar to before. I'm sure it will be updated a bit, but that's still Red Guardian.

Beside him is an updated look for Patrick Stewart's Professor X, maybe not one we've seen exactly before. It has a dark tank top and what looks like a blue jacket with a collar, with the red X-Men logo on the left side of his chest. It's definitely more modernized than the X-Men '97 look they gave us in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Next to him is Cyclops in the comic accurate Cyclops costume we've always wanted to see. It's so beautiful I might cry. "Oh my god, this is going to be amazing."

Then there's Falcon's updated costume, which we'd already partly seen in a behind the scenes shot showing John Walker, the Thing and Falcon with his back to the camera. It's similar to his look at the end of Captain America: Brave New World.

Sam Wilson's navy Captain America suit, the Thing, Gambit and Nightcrawler

The third row starts with Sam Wilson's Captain America in a navy version of the suit with red shoulder straps. The Thing looks exactly the same. Maybe he didn't get a leather jacket because he's so big. That's still the tank top he wore in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Shang-Chi's look maybe looks slightly updated, but it's similar to what he wore in his own film: a dark red leather tunic. We also get a first look at M'Baku, who looks like he's updated his costume quite a bit, though I assume it will still look traditional and Wakandan.

Then comes Channing Tatum's Gambit, with the look we saw in Deadpool & Wolverine. After him is a comic accurate Nightcrawler, which looks absolutely incredible, even though it's only an embroidered patch on the side of a promotional product. Sentry rounds out the row, looking exactly like he did at the end of Thunderbolts.

Ant-Man, Loki, Namor, Mystique and a possible Franklin Richards in the last row

A couple of characters in the fourth row stumped me, but some are easy. Ant-Man looks the same. Johnny Storm looks like he may be the third Fantastic Four member to get an updated leather jacket over his tank top.

Loki, God of Stories, is wearing almost exactly what he wore last time. He's been sitting in that chair for a while, so I doubt he's had time to change clothes.

The next one took me a minute until I zoomed in. It's definitely Namor, but with a very updated look: a high collar and a royal purple scarf. I bet that is going to look awesome.

Then there's an updated, modernized take on Mystique's white costume. It looks like it has sleeves, and I'm not for that. She should be sleeveless. Either way, it looks great. After her is John Walker. The last one really stumped me, but of all the characters it could be, I'm guessing it's Franklin Richards.

Why the leaked lineup may mean no big new Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal

We expected many unannounced characters to be revealed in later cast announcements. But this appears to be an embroidered promotional piece for the characters in Avengers: Doomsday, and it's the exact cast that was revealed at the very first cast announcement.

That doesn't rule out other characters, and I'd been hearing reports about that. But if there were more characters, what are the odds they wouldn't be included here, or that at least some characters would be different? So maybe we should all temper our expectations about a major cast addition or another round of chair announcements. That's not to say they won't add people, and there will be cameos, but maybe these are the main characters and the plot revolves around them.

Reading the characters top to bottom may hint at their importance

Instead of reading the lineup left to right, as I did above, try going down the columns. That may indicate how important these characters are. Doom comes first, then Captain America. Below them is Ant-Man. Then it's all the Fantastic Four, and you keep going until you get to the X-Men.

I don't want to read too much into that. I'm not saying Thor will be more important than Loki, God of Stories, or that Paul Rudd's Ant-Man will matter more than Bucky or the X-Men. I don't think you can map it one to one. Still, the top to bottom order might imply something about how big each character's role is in the film.

Secret characters may have been left out of the lineup on purpose

Finally, it may not mean anything that only the announced characters show up on this piece. For characters they're planning to keep secret until the movie comes out, say a Chris Evans Captain America, they might deliberately leave them off any products so nothing gets spoiled. It's at least somewhat plausible.

Whatever the answer, these X-Men costumes look amazing, and these are only embroidered interpretations.