Marvel’s Doomsday Podcast Revisits the Original X-Men Trilogy
Iman Vellani and Frank Alvarez revisit the original X-Men films through Charles and Erik’s fractured friendship, X2’s found family and Jean Grey’s Phoenix story.
The short answer: Iman Vellani and Frank Alvarez revisit the original X-Men films through Charles and Erik’s fractured friendship, X2’s found family and Jean Grey’s Phoenix story.
Before the Avengers became a movie team, the X-Men were already wrestling with who gets to belong. Iman Vellani and Frank Alvarez return to those earlier cinematic mutants in a video episode of Countdown to Avengers: Doomsday Official Podcast published November 5, 2026, revisiting X-Men, X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand.
The detour takes the hosts outside their MCU rewatch, with more to explore than the trilogy’s leather costumes. The announced discussion moves from Charles Xavier and Erik’s fractured friendship to the family the mutants build, then to the losses and transformations surrounding Jean Grey.
Vellani brings a connection to Marvel on screen and on the page: she plays Kamala Khan, also known as Ms. Marvel, and has written Ms. Marvel comics. Alvarez co-hosts the comedy podcast The Basement Yard. Their Countdown series began by revisiting the Avengers’ Infinity Saga films; this episode looks back at an earlier superhero ensemble.
From fractured friendship to found family
Spoilers for the original X-Men trilogy follow. The episode’s route through the first film includes Magneto’s origins and the introductions of Rogue and Wolverine before reaching Charles and Magneto’s relationship at 13:04. Their fractured friendship provides a thread into X2, where enemies must find a way to act together.
Released in 2003, X2 puts that uneasy alliance under pressure: Xavier is abducted, his students are imprisoned and the fugitive X-Men join forces with Magneto to rescue their own. The premise makes the question of family concrete. Protecting one another requires cooperation across the divisions that have already split the mutants.
The episode reaches Bobby’s coming-out scene and X2’s allegory at 20:03. That connection also has roots in the film’s writing. In a February 2005 interview with Film Freak Central, co-writer Dan Harris discussed the X-Men as a metaphor for sexual identity and orientation. He explained that Bobby’s difficulty being open with his family was a deliberate part of his characterization. Harris described the screenplay’s broader approach this way:
We're really, really proud of it because we tried to approach it from a character standpoint instead of just a supernatural or comic-book sort of standpoint. Dan Harris, Film Freak Central, February 6, 2005
Jean Grey and the road toward Doomsday
Jean’s sacrifice in X2 marks the next turn in the episode, followed by The Last Stand and a discussion of its treatment of the Phoenix Saga. The announced topics also include Cyclops, Jean and Logan’s arc. Jean’s story shifts the focus from building a family to the losses and transformations that test its bonds.
The retrospective then turns toward Avengers: Doomsday. The connection extends beyond the podcast’s title: Variety’s August 2026 report on the series listed Ian McKellen, James Marsden and Rebecca Romijn among Doomsday’s cast. All three also appeared in the first X-Men. The episode’s closing stretch connects the trilogy’s stories of fear and found family with the mutants’ future.
For viewers following along, the next stop is already named: the episode closes by pointing to Deadpool & Wolverine for the following week.