Louisiana Connections in the Avengers: Doomsday Cast

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) just turned the internet on its head today. After a pretty low-key announcement that they would be doing something today, not many comic book nerds had an hours long announcement in mind. But Marvel did just that.

Why Did Marvel Need to Make a Big Cast Announcement?

Today marked the start of production for the next massive MCU event, Avengers: Doomsday. To set off the production, and probably to get ahead of some casting leaks, Marvel decided to unveil the massive cast of heroes today. The way they did it made the reveal even more dramatic.

The scene was set in an empty soundstage, where a door opened for someone to bring in a directors style chair. The chair featured the name "Chris Hemsworth"...the actor who plays Thor in the MCU. It lingered on the back of the chair for roughly 12 minutes, before panning to the right to reveal a chair labeled "Vanessa Kirby". Kirby will debut in the Fantastic Four movie this year. They kept this pattern for over 5 hours, with millions of fans glued to the broadcast.

See the whole thing here...

The names continued to go viral as they were revealed, with fans sharing shock and excitement. Many of the names were heroes we've been watching in the MCU for year, like Ant-Man, Paul Rudd (the tiny chair for him was an incredible touch in the video) and Winston Duke, who plays M'Baku, which we met in Black Panther.

Were There Any New Names For The MCU?

It wasn't just our old friends from the MCU that we saw, there are some newer additions that were included. We already mentions Vanessa Kirby, who's chair was second in order. She's going to play Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman in this summer's Fantastic Four movie. That will be the first time we see her on screen...along with the rest of the Fantastic Four. All three other actors, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach were all featured in this reveal from Marvel as well.

Other newer roles include Tenoch Huerta Mejia, who debuted as Namor in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Lewis Pullman who will debut as "Bob" (c'mon, its The Sentry) in Thunderbolts, and the X-Men.

Oh, yeah. THE X-MEN WERE ANNOUNCED TODAY.

But not an unknown group of new X-Men, the classic X-Men from the original films in the 2000s. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Alan Cumming, and Kelsey Grammer...and a weird X-Men Easter Egg too. But we'll get to that.

So Who On This Cast Has Louisiana Roots?

Two of the actors who were announced in the Avengers: Doomsday cast rollout have some pretty strong ties to Louisiana.

First off, Anthony Mackie...Captain America (Sam Wilson)...was announced in the cast rollout. Which isn't shocking at all. Mackie just headlined his first movie, Captain America: Brave New World, and is one of the pillars of the MCU.

As many know, Mackie is from New Orleans. He's a huge New Orleans Saints fan, and his family still owns a small business in the greater New Orleans area. This is probably part of the reason the MCU masters changed Sam Wilson's origins on-screen from New York to Louisiana. It just fit Mackie so much better.

But he's not the only name revealed today who has ties to the Boot.

The internet exploded today when one of the chair reveals showed the name CHANNING TATUM. The actor just entered the MCU in a small role in Deadpool & Wolverine last year. In that movie, Tatum played the fan-favorite Cajun X-Men, Gambit.

Its a role that Tatum had been planning to play for a very long time. Tatum had signed on to an MCU role as Gambit in 2014, and even promoted the project at San Diego Comic Con International. But that film landed in developmental hell, and eventually faced cancellation.

But as the Deadpool & Wolverine served as a bridge between the old Fox Studios Marvel films (like the 2000s X-Men movies), they took a hard turn into the "what if" (not the official MCU What If?) territory by putting the cancelled version of Gambit in the movie. That cancelled version was Tatum of course.

Tatum has Louisiana ties as well, which helped with his "Cajun" accent for Gambit. His father is from Metairie, and he grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. So he's actually drawing from reality when he makes that Gambit voice come to life.

Check out all the names that were announced today, and who they play in the MCU, right here: