Following his supporting role in X-Men: The Last Stand and cameo in X-Men: Days of Future Past, it didn’t seem like we’d see Kelsey Grammer playing Beast again, particularly since Nicholas Hoult had taken over as the blue-furred mutant. Then along came The Marvels in 2023, which saw Grammer vocally reprising Beast, albeit one from a different universe. Now he’s among the many actors from Fox’s X-Men era who are set to return in next year’s Avengers: Doomsday. Ahead of the upcoming Marvel movie’s arrival, Grammer gave a detailed explanation for why he sees Beast as the “Martin Luther King of the mutants.”
Grammer discussed arguably the most famous of his genre characters while appearing on The Jamie Kern Lima Show. When the title host brought up how he’ll be back as Beast, a.k.a. Hank McCoy, in Doomsday, the Frasier actor explained why he enjoys playing the character so much as follows:
I love the character. He is a stalwart, upright, serious-minded, decent man, and that’s what I love about him. I think of him as being the Martin Luther King of the mutants. He’s got a dignity and a dream, and is willing to fight for it — but slow to action in terms of fighting. He will always find every way he can not to have to fight. And then when it’s the last possible response, then it’s swift and severe. You know, give no quarter, expect none. And I like that about him.
That’s actually a pretty fitting description of the character. Along with being one of the world’s foremost biochemists and knowledgeable in various other scientific and artistic fields, Beast has often been a political activist for mutants in the comics. He can throw down when necessary, but his priority will be to use his words and intellect to combat discrimination against mutantkind. Even in X-Men: The Last Stand, he started off being the United States’ Secretary of Mutant Affairs and was made ambassador to the United Nations by the end of the movie.
Now, how much we’ll see of these MLK Jr.-like traits on display in Avengers: Doomsday remains to be seen, but either way, Kelsey Grammer is looking forward to bringing Beast to life yet again, saying:
I think he’s a man of real stature, and that’s what I intend to bring to him, of ethical conduct. He’s a man who studies good and does his best to live by that, and I like that.
It hasn’t been clarified yet if the Beast Grammer is playing in Doomsday is the same one from The Marvels’ end-credits scene, who was allies with Binary, a.k.a. the variant of Monica Rambeau’s mother, Maria. What we do know is that on the X-Men side of things, he’ll be joined by Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, Ian McKellen’s Magneto, Rebecca Romijn’s Mystique, Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler, James Marsden’s Cyclops and Channing Tatum’s Gambit. Given Grammer’s enthusiasm for Beast, hopefully he’ll also be able to reprise him in Avengers: Secret Wars.
Of course, the X-Men are just one of several Marvel teams being represented in Avengers: Doomsday, with the Fantastic Four and freshly-unveiled New Avengers joining Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in action. See them all cross paths starting on May 1, 2026.
