Kelsey Grammer says Beast shared scenes with Thor and Pedro Pascal in Avengers: Doomsday

Kelsey Grammer, who plays Beast, was asked about Avengers: Doomsday in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. He had no problem naming specific characters he shared scenes with, including Thor and Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards. He also gave a hint about what's to come between Beast and Doctor Doom. To me, those comments were real reveals, unlike a set of behind the scenes photos that many people fell for around the same time.

The viral Avengers: Doomsday set photos were made with AI

Before getting to Grammer, I have to deal with the photos. They appeared to show everybody from Avengers: Doomsday in costume behind the scenes, including returning X-Men. Those photos were 100% made with AI. I was sent them a huge number of times, and I saw many people on social media falling for them.

AI has gotten extremely convincing. I'm sorry to disappoint anyone who thought they looked amazing and was excited they were out there, but they weren't real. Grammer's interview, on the other hand, was official.

Why Kelsey Grammer was willing to talk about Avengers: Doomsday

As we've said before, even with the best media training, actors get asked about the MCU in every interview for any project. Even a veteran actor can feel some compulsion in the moment to answer. And the longer actors have been around, the more they seem not to care. They aren't worried about Disney or Marvel coming after them.

There's some of that with Grammer. He named members of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, and he hinted at what's to come with Doctor Doom and perhaps an X-Men scene. We had already seen him as Beast in a Marvel post credits scene.

Grammer's X-Men comment points to more screen time, not necessarily Storm and Wolverine

At the start of his answer, Grammer brought up Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman and Sir Patrick Stewart. He talked about how limited his chances to work directly with them were in the older films. He then said something along the lines of getting to work together much more on this one.

I don't think he was hinting that he has scenes with Storm and Wolverine. He may have been. But he moved straight on to how much fun it was to work with new actors he hadn't worked with before. Taken as a whole, I think he meant he got much more screen time and more one on one work with the actors in general.

Beast and Thor sharing a scene was a surprise

The first specific character Grammer mentioned was Thor. He talked about how fun it was for Beast to interact with him. I consider that a major reveal. Set photos, behind the scenes looks at the sets and industry insider leaks had all pointed to Thor doing something other than visiting the X-Men timeline.

Nothing we'd seen indicated Beast and Thor would share any scenes. This promises a full Avengers and X-Men scene with two characters I didn't expect to run into each other. Chris Hemsworth's stunt double had already confirmed that Thor would be at the TVA at least at one point. With Beast and Thor now said to share screen time, I wonder if everyone ends up at the TVA, and what that means for the plot.

Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four ship

Grammer went further. He started to say "the guy from the Fantastic 4," then caught himself and said Pedro Pascal. That came after he mentioned Robert Downey Jr. The interviewer asked, "Did you get to work with him?" Grammer replied, "Sort of. We'll talk about that in a second." He then said, "I had scenes I worked with Pedro Pascal."

Industry insiders have talked about a scene in which Shuri, Reed Richards and Beast work together on a device to figure out what's going on with the incursion. According to those insiders, the three of them create a doomsday clock and try to fix everything. That is their whole goal.

Unless something has drastically changed, few if any characters on Earth 616 other than America Chavez can travel the multiverse and know where they're going. At the end of Thunderbolts*, if it isn't a fake out and the Fantastic Four are on their ship, which we think they are, they know how to get from the 828 to the 616. A leaked set photo also showed John Walker, Falcon and what we think is Shuri aboard that ship.

So the easiest answer I see is that the Fantastic Four stop in the 616 to pick everyone up, then go to what we think is the X-Men timeline, where everybody runs into each other. How they get to the TVA from there, we don't know. I think that's part of the plot. I think Doctor Doom may be trying to race everybody there, and everyone's trying to find Loki. I think that's where the Ten Rings come in.

Beast and Doctor Doom will likely share action, not heavy dialogue

Grammer stopped short of saying he had a scene with Doctor Doom. In the context of the whole interview, I think he probably didn't share any direct lines with him. There won't be heavy dialogue between Beast and Doom. But I think there's definitely some sort of action sequence or culmination where they share screen time and fight. That's why he said "sort of."

To me, that's the context of the whole quote, because he was talking about who he interacted with directly and shared dialogue with. So yes, I think Doctor Doom and Beast will be in the same place at the same time. I don't think that spells a good ending for any of them. I expect a battle for sure, but no poignant moments or killer lines between them. That makes sense, since you'd expect Beast to be interacting with characters like Reed Richards instead.

Marvel appears to be mixing everyone together

Every time we hear something new from actors about who they interacted with, it sounds like Marvel Studios won't miss the opportunity to mix everybody up. I know some people expect Secret Wars to be bigger and wider than Avengers: Doomsday. But with all the characters involved, and as tricky as that will be, it sounds like Marvel has learned from the sterile cameos of the Multiverse Saga.

Those came in two forms. In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it was very clear that everyone standing in the same room wasn't really in the same room. Worse was the isolated post credits cameo that promised future involvement but never showed the character interacting with anybody in the MCU.

That's why I saw Grammer's comments as good news. They were exciting, and they built the hype for the trailer that was still to come at the time. For me, the big question was how much of this movie Marvel would show.