Patrick Stewart’s Final Screen Role Will Be in Avengers: Doomsday

Morning News · Friday 30 October 2026

Sir Patrick Stewart’s last screen performance is still to come: Marvel Studios has confirmed it will be his return as Professor Charles Xavier in Avengers: Doomsday, and Sir Ian McKellen has paid a moving tribute to his friend. Also this morning: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters eyes a reinvented third season, Karyn Kusama takes the space horror game Mouthwashing to the big screen, a chilling trailer for Pendulum, James Gunn on when the DCU will find its Batman, Donald Glover’s PUBG series for Netflix, a fifth season of The Diplomat and Alfred Molina joining Viola Davis in Ascent.

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Update: Patrick Stewart’s farewell performance will be in Avengers: Doomsday

• What is new: Marvel Studios has confirmed that Avengers: Doomsday, in which he returns as Professor Charles Xavier, will be Sir Patrick Stewart’s final on-screen performance, Variety and ComicBook.com reported
• McKellen’s tribute: Sir Ian McKellen, his friend of half a century and his Magneto in the X-Men films, remembered Stewart telling him in a London street about the offer to join Star Trek, and warning him against getting lost in Hollywood. “Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did,” McKellen wrote. “His farewell performance in Avengers: Doomsday is yet to be seen”
• A lifelong friendship: McKellen officiated at Stewart’s wedding to Sunny Ozell in 2013, and the pair shared Broadway that same season in Waiting for Godot and No Man’s Land
• UK availability: Avengers: Doomsday is in UK cinemas from Wednesday 16 December

There is something fitting about Stewart’s last bow being as Xavier, the patient teacher who believed people could be talked into mercy. It means audiences will get one more chance to see him on the big screen this Christmas, and McKellen’s words are a reminder of how much of that career rested on one brave decision in the 1980s. Read our full tribute, Sir Patrick Stewart (1940–2026): A Tribute to the Captain.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters eyes a reinvented season 3 with a new creative team

• What happened: Apple TV’s MonsterVerse series is in talks for a third season that would take the show in a new direction with new Titans, Variety, Deadline and ComicBook.com reported. The renewal is not yet official
• Who’s out: A new showrunner and writers’ room would replace showrunner Chris Black and the current writers
• Where the story goes: The original storyline continues in Birdwatcher, the spin-off starring Wyatt Russell as the young Lee Shaw on a Cold War mission to stop the Soviets unleashing a hidden Titan, with Joby Harold as showrunner
• UK availability: Seasons 1 and 2 stream on Apple TV in the UK; season 3 date not yet confirmed

A soft reboot after two seasons is unusual, but it makes sense for a show whose real stars are the monsters. Moving the Shaw family saga into Birdwatcher frees Monarch to go bigger on Titans, which is what MonsterVerse fans have wanted all along.

Karyn Kusama will direct a film of space horror game Mouthwashing

• What happened: Sony has won the film rights to the acclaimed indie horror game Mouthwashing, with Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body, The Invitation) directing, The Hollywood Reporter reported
• Who’s writing: Her Invitation writers Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay. Scott Derrickson produces with C. Robert Cargill and Vince Cheng through Crooked Highway, the company behind The Black Phone
• The story: Five crew members are stranded aboard the space freighter Tulpar after it crashes into an asteroid, where dwindling supplies, isolation and paranoia tear them apart
• UK availability: UK date not yet confirmed

This is a smart pairing. The Invitation was a masterclass in slowly tightening dread around a dinner table, and Mouthwashing is built on the same thing: a handful of people in a confined space, and guilt that nobody wants to name. With Derrickson’s team producing, it is one to watch.

Pendulum trailer: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Phoebe Dynevor fall under a healer’s spell

• What happened: Vertical has released the trailer for Pendulum, the directing debut of Black Swan writer Mark Heyman, produced by Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa
• The story: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Phoebe Dynevor play a couple who travel to a New Mexico retreat after a trauma, hoping the revered healer Ella-Rose, played by Jacki Weaver, can help them, until Patrick starts to suspect her practices hide something terrifying
• Also starring: Anna Deavere Smith, Jena Malone and Norman Reedus. Heyman says the film is inspired by his own family lore
• UK availability: In US cinemas on 1 January 2027; UK date not yet confirmed

Watch the trailer

Jacki Weaver as a soft-spoken guru with something to hide is an inspired bit of casting, and the Black Swan connection suggests this will get under the skin. A New Year’s Day release is a bold way to start 2027.

Update: James Gunn says the DCU’s Batman casting “won’t be too long”

• What is new: On his Suicide Squad podcast, which we covered in last night’s Evening News for its Harley Quinn news, Gunn went further on Batman, saying the role is still uncast but casting “isn’t very far away”, IGN reported
• Who he wants: The new Batman will be close in age to David Corenswet’s Superman, as the two are contemporaries, and Gunn wants the best actor for the part rather than a movie star. Even someone he gave a small role in The Suicide Squad would not be ruled out
• UK availability: No DCU Batman film is dated yet; UK date not yet confirmed

Earlier this month Gunn said the suit hadn’t even been designed, as we reported in our Horror and Sci-Fi Brief, so a casting call within reach is real progress. Choosing an actor rather than a star is the right instinct for a Batman who has to grow alongside Corenswet’s Superman.

Donald Glover will direct and star in Netflix’s PUBG series

• What happened: Netflix is developing a live-action series of Krafton’s battle royale game PUBG, with Donald Glover directing and starring, Deadline and Variety reported
• Who’s writing: Glover writes and executive produces with his brother Stephen Glover, his Atlanta collaborator
• The game: Players are dropped into a remote location and fight to be the last one standing; its creator was inspired by the cult Japanese film Battle Royale
• UK availability: In development; no cast beyond Glover and no date yet. UK date not yet confirmed

A game with almost no story needs a writer with ideas, and Glover has plenty. After Atlanta, expect something far stranger and sharper than a straight shoot-’em-up.

The Diplomat is renewed for a fifth season

• What happened: Netflix has renewed Keri Russell’s political thriller for season 5, two weeks after season 4 arrived on 15 October
• Who’s back: Russell, Rufus Sewell, Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford lead the cast. Season 4 also brought in Jodie Whittaker as British Prime Minister Bethan Vaughn
• The numbers: Season 4 opened with 4.8 million views and reached No. 3 on Netflix’s English-language TV chart in its second week
• UK availability: All four seasons stream on Netflix in the UK; season 5 date not yet confirmed

After that cliffhanger at the G7, a renewal was always likely. Season 4 was on our Weekly Streaming Highlights list, and it remains one of the most British-flavoured hits on Netflix.

Update: Alfred Molina joins Viola Davis in Paramount+ thriller Ascent

• What is new: Alfred Molina and Selton Mello have joined the cast of John Logan’s Ascent, Deadline reported. Molina plays Sebastian, the formidable head of Ascent Ventures
• The series: Viola Davis stars and executive produces; Logan creates and runs the show, with production planned in Los Angeles in 2027
• UK availability: Made for Paramount+; UK date not yet confirmed

Molina makes a superb heavy, and he joins Sam Heughan, whose casting we reported in the Evening News on 23 October. This is shaping up to be one of Paramount+’s starriest dramas.

Will you be watching Avengers: Doomsday for Patrick Stewart’s final bow, and which horror is on your Halloween list? Our Halloween horror guide has plenty of ideas. Tell us below.

Back tonight at 6pm with the Evening News.