Turns out, making two giant ‘Avengers’ movies back to back is going to take a little longer than originally thought.

Disney and Marvel have announced that the next two team-up films from the comic book behemoth are now set to arrive a little later in theaters than originally planned –– ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ is shifting from a planned May 5th, 2026 slot to December 18th, 2026.

Likewise, ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ will now decamp from a May 5th, 2027 release date to –– you guessed it! –– December 18th that year.

Clearly, directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo have decided the new movies will require some more work than they figured. Which honestly, is no bad thing –– better to wait and get it right in the hopes of an ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’-level success, than pump out something quickly.

The sprawling cast for at least the first movie (we’re expecting several to appear in both) was first announced in a viral video Marvel put online showing director’s chairs with the actor’s names on them.

So who can we expect?

On the longstanding MCU front, we have Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Captain America, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man (whose chair is amusingly smaller than the others), Letitia Wright as Shuri, Wyatt Russell as John Walker/US Agent (from ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,’ who also appeared in ‘Thunderbolts*’), Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova (the main character of ‘Thunderbolts*’), David Harbour (introduced as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian in ‘Black Widow’ and who recurred in ‘Thunderbolts*’). Also from both ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ and ‘Thunderbolts*', Hannah John Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost, while Lewis Pullman, introduced as "Bob" (the character we now know as Sentry), is part of the new cast.

Alongside Wright, ‘Black Panther’s Winston Duke will be back as M’Baku, and Tom Hiddleston will also return as Loki.

Simu Liu will return as Shang-Chi, a character who really has deserved a sequel before now. And Danny Ramirez, who was introduced as Joaquim Torres in ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ and reprised the role in February’s ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ will show up as the new Falcon.

On the recent addition front, there’s Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn and Pedro Pascal from ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps,’ which will introduce the iconic team to the MCU on July 25th.

Any surprises? We’re not sure we predicted Tenoch Huerta Mejia –– who played Namor in ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ coming back, but his chair was among the others.

Finally, there's the even more unexpected likes of Kelsey Grammer, who played Dr. Henry ‘Hank’ McCoy/Beast in Fox Marvel movies ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ and ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past,’ and cropped up in a cameo as the character in ‘The Marvels,’ is also on the list.

And talking of the original Fox X-Men line-up, he's not alone, as Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn and James Marsden were also announced.

Likewise, Channing Tatum, who made such an impact in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ will be back as Gambit.

Finally, because you can’t really have ‘Doomsday’ without Doom, Robert Downey Jr. is making his big MCU return, this time playing classic ‘Fantastic Four’ villain Doctor Doom.

We're sure more cast will be announced before 'Doomsday' arrives, but Disney has more time to get the message out.

Speaking to Empire magazine, Anthony revealed that what lured them to return:

“We’re very close with Kevin [Feige] and Lou [D’Esposito, Marvel Studios’ Co-President] and the entire Marvel team and we’ve had conversations through the years. We’ve talked about a lot of ideas. Really what happened was, we ended up stumbling upon a [‘Secret Wars’] idea that activated all of us, you couldn’t see it coming until it came, and once it came it was like, ‘Well, that’s a story we need to tell.’”

And that creative spark extended to regular collaborator Stephen McFeely, who is also back writing the new movies.

While other co-writer Christopher Markus is so far sticking with the Russos’ AGBO company to keep it running, McFeely was tempted back into the MCU machine.

Here’s what Joe told Empire:

“There were ideas that we were trying to wrap our heads around that preceded this one, and we just never found the story. I remember calling Steve and said, ‘Hey, crazy idea. What do you think if we all go back and do Secret Wars?’ He was like, ‘F*** no. Absolutely not.’ And then he hung up. And the next morning at 7.30 he called and were like, ‘Alright, I have an idea…’ ”

‘Secret Wars’ would draw from (through the usual Marvel movie filter where changes will be made) a pair of 1980s comic book series focused on an all-powerful antagonist known as the Beyonder, who in the first installment pitted Marvel’s heroes and villains against each other on a planet known as Battleworld.

In a 2015 revival by Jonathan Hickman, the resulting conflict left the multiverse collapsed, the survivors living on a single planet ruled by classic villain Doctor Doom.

The Russos have previously talked about their enthusiasm for ‘Secret Wars,’ so this one made sense.

In a Thanos-like snap, three Marvel dates have disappeared from the calendar completely. The place holders for February 13th, 2026, November 6th, 2026, and November 5, 2027, have all been removed from Disney’s calendar, pointing towards the result of Marvel's commitment to quality over quantity.

It wasn’t all Marvel changes –– Disney also confirmed the dates for some of the movies headed our way via its 20th Century Studios, including Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller 'The Dog Stars,' starring Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin. That one will be released on March 27th, 2026.

Then there is sequel 'The Devil Wears Prada 2,' which will see the return of Meryl Streep's imperious magazine editor Miranda Priestly as she navigates the challenges of the declining print industry. The comedy drama sequel is due on May 1st, 2026.

Finally, the company has scheduled an IMAX/3D re-release of James Cameron’s 'Avatar: The Way of Water,' which is set for October 3rd this year, laying the groundwork for the upcoming 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' on December 19th.