Famke Janssen made her frustration with Marvel Studios official this week, publicly declaring that the studio “made a mistake” by leaving her out of Avengers: Doomsday — even as six of her original X-Men co-stars prepare to reprise their roles in the December blockbuster.
Speaking at Spacecon 2026, the Dutch actress addressed her absence with a mix of self-deprecating humor and pointed candor. She first deflected any suggestion she might be secretly involved, noting that her face would betray her immediately. “I am so bad at keeping secrets that I always say to everyone I’m the worst actor in the world,” she told Nerdtropolis. “It’s all on my face. You right away will read it.” Then she cut to the chase: “I think they made a mistake, but hey, who am I? I’m just a little me who thinks that.”
The comments land with extra weight given the scale of the reunion Marvel has assembled. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, Alan Cumming, and Kelsey Grammer have all signed on to return as Professor X, Magneto, Mystique, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Beast, respectively. Janssen, who played Jean Grey across five films spanning 2000 to 2014, is the most prominent original cast member not at the table.
She has been asking the same question publicly for months. Last November she revealed she had “never ever” heard from Disney about rejoining the franchise, and by October, speaking with Screen Rant during a press tour for her Netflix series Amsterdam Empire, she said the comic book world had never fully been her domain — though she remained curious about where the story might go. What has shifted since is her tone. Where she once seemed philosophical about it, she now appears genuinely irked.
The timing carries added pressure for Marvel. A reboot of the X-Men franchise is already in development under director Jake Schreier, who confirmed last August that work had begun. If Doomsday represents the swan song for the Fox-era cast, as many expect it does, then Janssen’s window for closure as Jean Grey — a character she says has “unfinished business” after the truncated Dark Phoenix storyline — may be closing permanently. She made that appetite plain: “I am ready. I am ready to show you some Phoenix, some very dark Phoenix.”
Avengers: Doomsday, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, opens December 18, 2026.
