Xochitl Gomez says her big Marvel break came with a catch: casting teams stopped calling. In an interview with Bustle, published on 9 November, the actor said landing America Chavez in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness made it harder to get other parts, because people assumed she’d cost too much or be too booked up. IGN picked up the comments, noting the oddity that she hasn’t returned to Marvel since.
Asked how the jump to the MCU went, Gomez told Bustle that “after that, I had a hard time getting roles”. By her account, the pushback was about money and calendars: she says she heard “She’s too expensive” and questions about her schedule. Bustle’s interviewer asked if people had simply assumed, and Gomez said yes. She called the experience “a gift and a curse”, explaining that she wanted to take on smaller indie films and wanted a chance to do so.
The assumption doesn’t match her actual Marvel workload. According to IGN, America Chavez hasn’t appeared in any MCU project since 2022, even though the character’s portrayal was generally well received. The film ended with her heading to Kamar-Taj to train with other sorcerers, which looked like a setup for a bigger role. IGN says rumours of a magic-school series called Strange Academy circulated for a while, but nothing has materialised.
That makes the next question an obvious one. IGN notes there’s no confirmation that Chavez appears in Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars, despite her multiverse-hopping powers suiting films meant to close out the MCU’s Multiverse Saga. When Bustle asked whether she could return for Doomsday, which IGN says arrives next month, Gomez answered with a joke: “they own the rights to my image, so it’s possible.” That’s a tease at most, not a confirmation. Elsewhere in the interview she said she’d like to see how Chavez uses her powers now, and how close she and Wong have become.
Marvel isn’t the only thing on her résumé. Gomez started on Disney Channel’s Raven’s Home in 2018 and led a season of Netflix’s The Baby-Sitters Club before joining the MCU at 16. She then won Dancing with the Stars in 2023 with partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy, at 17. She also told Bustle that the franchise made it hard to be herself publicly, since fans expected a character.
Her current project is lighter. Gomez voices Gabby, opposite America Ferrera as her on-screen mum, in the animated The Cat in the Hat, which Bustle lists as in theatres from 6 November. She’s also choosy about what she accepts, saying she turns down projects that feel off, and she names Broadway as a long-held ambition.
Is Xochitl Gomez in Avengers: Doomsday?
Nothing official says so. IGN reports there’s no confirmation of America Chavez in either Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars, and Gomez’s own answer to Bustle was only that a return is “possible”.
Why did Gomez say it was hard to find work after Doctor Strange 2?
She told Bustle that people assumed she’d be too expensive and too tied up with Marvel scheduling. She says that discouraged them from casting her in the indie projects she wanted.
What is Xochitl Gomez doing now?
She voices Gabby in the animated The Cat in the Hat, released in US theatres on 6 November according to Bustle. She also says Broadway is still on her wish list.
