Two Actors In Avengers Doomsday Have Connections To New Jersey

With over 38 million views on YouTube in the first 24 hours since the debut of the official movie trailer online, Avengers: Doomsday is one of the most anticipated films of 2026.

Along with the anticipated summer blockbuster Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Marvel Studios and their parent company, Disney, have leveraged plenty of resources to ensure these movies meet fans' expectations.

Since 2006, Marvel Studios has produced 11 of the top 40 highest-grossing movies of all-time. Avengers: Endgame was originally the most profitable movie of all time until the 2009 Avatar film was re-released in theaters.

But in the years since the COVID-19 Pandemic, the entire movie industry took a massive hit in 2020, and hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs as a result. Even Disney's cash cow, Marvel Studios, has struggled to consistently achieve pre-2020 levels.

Only five films of the 14 movies released since 2021 have achieved pre-pandemic levels of box office success. This is part of the reason why, when previous Disney CEO Bob Iger returned to his position, Marvel Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige was empowered to shake up behind-the-scenes personnel in order to get the "Marvel Money Train" back on track.

These Two Actors with New Jersey Connections to Reprise Their Marvel Roles in 2026

Like previous Avengers films, Avengers: Doomsday will be a climactic event-type film that will feature a story that is the culmination of the previous seven years of Marvel Studios' projects. There is expected to be at least 23 heroes who are scheduled to appear in the movie, potentially several more considering how Disney and Marvel love to "surprise" audiences who go to see these movies in theaters.

Two of the Marvel Characters to play roles in the blockbuster movie coming this December are played by actors with New Jersey ties:

*Paul Rudd was born in 1969 in Passaic, New Jersey, and was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2024. His family moved to Overland Park, Kansas before he entered Junior High School because of his dad's job at TWA.

Thanks in part to his experience in a variety of Movies and TV shows, Paul Rudd was cast as a comic relief-style hero when he first starred as Scott Lang in the 2015 Ant-Man Movie. The trilogy of Ant-Man movies starring Paul Rudd also featured another New Jersey-born actor, Michael Douglas, who portrays the infamous Hank Pym character.

Overall, Rudd has appeared as the superhero Ant-Man in five Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, including the blockbuster Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Paul Rudd's Ant-Man Trilogy has generated over $610 million at the Domestic Box Office. When Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters, it will be the first time that Rudd reprises his role as Scott Lang's Ant-Man in three years since the third solo Ant-Man film.

*Kelsey Grammer was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands in 1955, later moved to Woodbridge, New Jersey, after his parents' divorce. Grammer attended High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before embarking on his theater career in the late 1970s.

The award-winning actor has become a frequent visitor to New Jersey over the last several years, most recently serving as Grand Marshall for Atlantic City's Winter Wonderland Christmas Parade and Saint Patrick's Day Parade.

Grammer entered the Marvel Universe in the 2006 film, X-Men: The Last Stand, in which he portrayed the character Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy. While the movie was heavily ridiculed by both mainstream and diehard Marvel movie fans, Grammer's portrayal of the nuanced comic book character was well-received.

The failures of X-Men: The Last Stand soured the studio from bringing Kelsey Grammer back to the movies for almost a decade. He had a cameo appearance as part of the final scenes of X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014, and the Dr. McCoy character was featured in the End-Credits scene for The Marvels movie in 2023.

So there is a possibility that Paul Rudd's Scott Lang could interact with Kelsey Grammer's Dr. Hank McCoy, especially considering Ant-Man's experience with multiversal travel, and Dr. McCoy being one of the smartest scientists in the Marvel Universe.