Noah Jupe Joins Avengers: Secret Wars in Mystery Role Fans Believe Is a Grown-Up Franklin Richards

Noah Jupe has been added to the cast of Avengers: Secret Wars, and while Marvel Studios has not said who he is playing, the role is reportedly central to the story. That detail alone narrows the guessing down to a short list of characters, and the leading theory going around is that Jupe has been cast as a grown-up version of Franklin Richards.

The news comes from Deadline, in a report from writer Justin Kroll under the headline "Avengers: Secret Wars, Noah Jupe joins upcoming Marvel Studios movie." Deadline reported, "While Marvel Studios has a couple of months before it unveils Avengers: Doomsday, the next chapter is already looking to add to its stacked cast. Sources tell Deadline that Noah Jupe has been tapped for a secret role in Avengers: Secret Wars, which is set to go into production later this year. Marvel had no comment on Jupe joining the cast."

Deadline also noted that "while it is unknown, the role is expected to play a key part in the story of Avengers: Secret Wars." The film is directed by the Russo brothers, with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige producing, and it is set to open on December 17th, 2027. Jupe previously starred opposite Sadie Sink, now part of the MCU, in a theatrical production of Romeo and Juliet. Sink is 24 and Jupe is 21.

Why the Franklin Richards theory makes sense given his age

My guess, and what a lot of comments already seem to be landing on, is that this is basically a grown-up Franklin Richards. The wrinkle is that it is unclear how far into the future the Battleworld reality is set, and while Jupe looks young and is young at 21, it is unclear whether they would want him playing something like a 10 or 12 year old version of the character.

It makes a lot more sense to me if Franklin is aged somewhere between 14 and maybe 16 or 17 in this story. That would still leave him more than 20 years in the MCU to grow into an older Franklin Richards, and if you have read the comics, you know what is in store for him there. The first Fantastic Four movie already alluded to that.

Outside of the obvious choices of Doctor Doom, Sue Storm and Reed Richards, the only other central role left available in Secret Wars really is Franklin Richards or the Beyonder, which is why the character being described as key to the story points so strongly in that direction.

Why I don't think this is the Beyonder

I think it's quite certain at this point that Loki, as the God of Stories, is going to be the surrogate for the Beyonder. He's going to be the power that Doctor Doom takes to become God Emperor Doom, and that's where the God title comes from. Robert Downey Jr is playing Doctor Doom, and the story will be built around him.

There simply isn't time to introduce an entire race of Beyonders and that storyline through Avengers: Doomsday, and then also bring in a brand new actor as a young man playing a central Beyonder character on top of that. That doesn't make much sense to me. What room is left after Doctor Doom, Reed Richards, Steve Rogers and returning characters like Thor is limited, alongside characters who didn't feature in Doomsday like Peter Parker or more Wolverine and Deadpool.

Could Jupe instead be a brand new X-Men character

Outside of Franklin Richards aged up into a new family dynamic with Doctor Doom and Sue Storm in Battleworld, the other real option is that Jupe is playing a brand new member of the X-Men. He already starred opposite Sadie Sink, and there are still plenty of X-Men characters that haven't been cast yet.

The plan, as I see it, is for Avengers: Secret Wars to essentially function as the reboot, introducing new characters within that film rather than waiting until after Secret Wars wraps up to bring them in. That way, when the X-Men reboot arrives right behind it, audiences will have already seen these characters in action rather than having to buy into people completely removed from the crossover event they just watched.

That would give the audience instant familiarity with those characters in a way Marvel Studios didn't quite achieve going from the Infinity Saga into the Multiverse Saga. It also lines up with Kevin Feige's description of Secret Wars as the most ambitious movie Marvel has ever tackled, something built to feel completely different from Avengers: Endgame, since simply redoing Infinity War and Endgame again would be too obvious and the fandom would call it out as it happened.

Why the news cycle for both Avengers films is about to get risky

We're entering a strange phase of the Marvel news cycle through the end of 2026, because the stakes are critical in a way we haven't really seen before. Every spoiler for Secret Wars is also a compounded spoiler for Doomsday. If Thor is spotted on set for Secret Wars, that confirms he survived Doomsday and made it to Battleworld. The same goes for any sets that hint at how Battleworld comes together.

The absence of certain characters could just as easily point to deaths during Doomsday, and any details that reveal what actually happens in that film become a spoiler for both movies at once. This is different from what happened with Infinity War and Endgame, which were shot concurrently but had most of Endgame's principal photography already finished before the Marvel news cycle had grown into what it looks like today, right around when Infinity War hit theaters in 2018.

What do you think Jupe's mystery role in Avengers: Secret Wars actually is?