Robert Downey Jr. posted an Easter illustration on social media on Wednesday, and if you looked closely at what was inside the basket, you found something Marvel has never officially announced.
Doctor Doom, rendered in holiday illustration form, is holding a wicker basket filled with Easter eggs.
Each egg carries the symbol of a different Marvel hero. Most of those heroes are already confirmed to appear in Avengers: Doomsday. One of them is not.
That egg is the one with Spider-Man’s logo on it.
Avengers: Doomsday releases December 18, 2026. It is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, written by Stephen McFeely, and stars Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom in the biggest MCU crossover since Endgame.
Over 25 characters have been officially confirmed for the film. Spider-Man is not one of them.
And yet there he is, sitting in Doom’s Easter basket alongside Thor, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Shang-Chi, Captain America, Loki, Ant-Man, Namor, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther, almost every single one of whom is already in the movie.
What Does Downey’s Post Show?
The illustration posted by Downey depicts his Doctor Doom character in a seasonal setting, holding a large wicker basket filled with decorated Easter eggs.
From left to right, each egg carries a recognizable Marvel symbol corresponding to specific characters and teams.
Doctor Strange is there. Namor is there. Ant-Man, Black Panther, the New Avengers, Captain America, the X-Men, Shang-Chi, Thor, the Fantastic Four, and Loki are all there.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange has not been formally announced for the film either, though the actor has strongly hinted at his involvement.
Every other character depicted has confirmed, announced cast members in the film. The Spider-Man egg sits at the far right of the image.
The question is not whether Spider-Man will be in Avengers: Doomsday. The question is which Spider-Man.
Why It Almost Certainly Is Not Tom Holland
Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is not in Avengers: Doomsday. That much has been reported consistently by multiple reliable insiders since late 2025. The narrative reason is built into the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, where a multiversal spell erased Peter Parker’s identity from everyone’s memory on Earth-616.
Nobody remembers Peter Parker. The Avengers do not know he exists. Assembling an team to fight Doctor Doom while excluding the person nobody can remember is not a plot hole, it is a story beat.
Holland’s Spider-Man has his own film to deal with. Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens July 31, 2026, five months before Doomsday, and is described as a street-level story that includes the Punisher and the Hulk.
If the timeline of both films overlaps, Holland’s Peter Parker has somewhere else to be.
He is expected to play a significant role in Avengers: Secret Wars, which releases in December 2027 as the conclusion to the entire Multiverse Saga.
The prevailing theory across fan communities and insider reporting is that Holland is being held back for the finale.
Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki and who is confirmed for Doomsday, recently told an interviewer that Tom Holland is his favourite Spider-Man of all time.
He then added “for reasons he cannot disclose.” That qualifier has been interpreted almost universally as a signal that the MCU’s own Spider-Man, Holland’s version, will not be the one to show up in December, but that someone will.
Why It Could Be Tobey Maguire
Insider Daniel Richtman, who has an established track record on Marvel casting news, reported in late 2025 that Tobey Maguire will appear in Avengers: Doomsday.
Multiple other sources have corroborated that reporting. A fan spotted Maguire in London in September 2025, the same city and the same month that principal photography on Doomsday wrapped.
A separate report from the same insider claimed that Maguire was wearing a CGI suit on set, which fans have theorized could be an upgraded version of his classic red-and-blue costume, similar to how Tom Holland’s Spider-Man received the Iron Spider suit from Tony Stark in Infinity War.
The upgrade theory would fit the logic of a Maguire who has been in his universe for years since No Way Home and has had time to develop.
One report has gone further, describing the film’s opening sequence as a major action set piece involving Maguire’s Spider-Man, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool, and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
Reynolds and Jackman were confirmed via separate reporting to be joining Doomsday through ongoing reshoots in Spring 2026, despite also not being in the original official cast announcement.
The opening fight between three beloved Marvel characters from different eras and different studios would be an extraordinary way to begin the most anticipated superhero film in years.
Maguire himself has previously said he would return as Spider-Man if Marvel came asking.
He has not publicly commented on Doomsday. Andrew Garfield, the third live-action Spider-Man, was asked directly whether he and Maguire would be in Doomsday and responded with an emphatic and profane denial.
Garfield gave the same answer about No Way Home before that film came out and he was in it. His denial carries limited weight.
Avengers: Doomsday Set To Break Records
Avengers: Doomsday is the first Avengers film in seven years. Endgame came out in 2019.
The MCU has spent the intervening period building what it calls the Multiverse Saga, a sprawling collection of films and Disney+ series establishing the concept of multiple parallel universes, variants of familiar characters, and the catastrophic instability that results when those universes begin to collide.
Doomsday is where that build pays off, and the Russo Brothers return to direct after helming both Infinity War and Endgame.
The cast announced in the official March 2025 live-stream was already staggering. Robert Downey Jr. is back not as Tony Stark but as Doctor Doom, the armored ruler of Latveria and one of Marvel’s most iconic villains.
The original X-Men actors, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Kelsey Grammer, Alan Cumming, and Channing Tatum, are all in the film, which is remarkable given that those characters existed in a different studio’s continuity for nearly two decades before Disney acquired Fox.
Pedro Pascal leads the Fantastic Four alongside Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn.
Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, Anthony Mackie’s Captain America, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Florence Pugh’s Yelena, Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man, Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, and Tenoch Huerta Mejia’s Namor are all confirmed.
Kevin Feige stated at CinemaCon in April 2025 that more characters would be added beyond the official announcement.
He was right. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are joining via reshoots. If the Easter egg art is what it appears to be, a Spider-Man is joining too.
Remembering Each Spider-Man
Tobey Maguire played Peter Parker in Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy between 2002 and 2007.
His version of the character is 51 years old in real life and would be playing a version of Peter Parker who has been living in his own universe since No Way Home sent him home after the events of that film.
His trilogy defined the superhero genre for a generation and remains beloved.
His Peter Parker is warm, self-sacrificing, and fundamentally decent, qualities that play differently alongside the harder-edged characters who have populated the MCU in recent years.
Tom Holland is the MCU’s current Spider-Man, having debuted in Captain America: Civil War in 2016.
He was in Infinity War, Endgame, and all three of his solo films. His Peter Parker is younger, faster, funnier, and more directly integrated into the MCU’s established universe than either of his predecessors.
The spell at the end of No Way Home that erased his identity means the Avengers simply do not know he exists, which is why his absence from the team can be written as a story element rather than an oversight.
Andrew Garfield played Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man and its 2014 sequel, a version of the character that has attracted an enormous critical reappraisal in the years since No Way Home reminded audiences how good his performance was.
He has denied being in Doomsday. He denied being in No Way Home too.
What Comes Next
Avengers: Doomsday releases December 18, 2026. An official trailer has not been released at the time this article was written, though insider reports have suggested it was originally planned to accompany Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Reshoots are currently underway. Kevin Feige has confirmed more announcements are coming.
Doctor Doom wants the multiverse. The universes are already colliding. The Easter eggs are in the basket.
All signs point to at least one Spider-Man showing up in December, and the weight of the evidence points to Tobey Maguire, a version of the character who has been waiting in his universe, older and wiser and ready, since No Way Home sent him home five years ago.
