Avengers 5 and Avengers 6 will close out the Multiverse Saga.
Robert Downey Jr. is still Marvel’s Man in the Iron Mask — just not as Tony Stark/Iron Man. “New mask, same task,” Downey said during Marvel Studios’ San Diego Comic-Con presentation in Hall H, where the Iron Man star shockingly unmasked himself on stage as the MCU Doctor Doom. The Oppenheimer Oscar winner will play a multiverse version of the Fantastic Four’s arch-enemy in the newly-retitled Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, which will be helmed by Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame directing duo Anthony and Joe Russo in their return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige unveiled the new title treatments (below) for the fifth Avengers film (formerly titled The Kang Dynasty) and its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars. The two films remain dated for May 2026 and May 2027 and will cap off the Multiverse Saga and Phase 6 of the MCU.
The Russo brothers directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019) — once the highest-grossing film of all time with a box office of $2.8 billion.
“That four-movie run was incredible, and it left us creatively spent with all our emotions on the floor,” Anthony Russo told the packed 6,500-seat Hall H. “In the time since, through a very special story, Joe and I have come to potentially see a road forward with you all.”
“New mask, same task.”
Robert Downey Jr. surprises Hall H to announce his return to the MCU as Doctor Doom. pic.twitter.com/j1SEjzse3p
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) July 28, 2024
Plot details are being locked away on Battleworld, but the next phase-ending Avengers movies will draw inspiration from Jonathan Hickman’s 2015 multiverse-spanning Secret Wars storyline that saw Victor Von Doom rule all reality as God Emperor Doom after alternate dimensions collided during universe-destroying incursions.
The Fantastic Four — Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Susan Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) — are also confirmed for a crossover with Earth’s mightiest heroes in Doomsday and Secret Wars.
The Downey-fronted Avengers: Doomsday marks the actor’s first Marvel movie since 2019’s Endgame, which ended with his Tony Stark sacrificing himself to save the universe. Last month, Downey said he’s “become surprisingly open-minded to the idea” of returning to the MCU after portraying Iron Man across 10 movies between 2008 and 2019. “It’s just crazily in my DNA. Probably the most like-me character I’ve ever played, even though he’s way cooler than I am,” Downey said of Stark.
Marvel Studios’ upcoming film slate includes Captain America: Brave New World (February 14th, 2025), Thunderbolts* (May 5th, 2025), The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25th, 2025), Blade (November 7th, 2025), Avengers: Doomsday (May 1st, 2026), and Avengers: Secret Wars (May 7th, 2027).
Stay tuned to ComicBook.com’s Comic-Con hub for the latest news and updates out of SDCC 2024.
