Downey’s returning to the MCU, but not in the way fans expected.
Robert Downey, Jr. will return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this time as Victor Von Doom. Who knew he could play an armored narcissist? All joking aside, Downey and the Avengers team took Hall H by storm last night, and managed to deliver on a panel even when a lot of fans were speculating about wild possibilities like Avengers vs. X-Men or something equally bonkers after the release of Deadpool & Wolverine. After, Downey posted an image to his social media profiles that shows him sharing a moment with the Doctor Doom mask, once again comparing the character to his performance of Tony Stark.
“New mask, same task,” says the caption. Last night, Downey joked about how much he likes playing complicated characters, a motion at Iron Man but also a peek at the way the MCU hopes to depict Dr. Doom.
Downey’s casting raises a lot of questions; while it’s easy to imagine that Victor Von Doom will be a variant of Tony Stark from another universe, how did that come together? Was he Tony, but went another way when he got the armor? Did Latveria get involved with World War II and change the path of Tony’s parents? Only time will tell, but as far as San Diego Comic Con announcements go, that one was pretty impressive.
With almost everyone assuming Secret Wars would be loosely adapted from the Jonathan Hickman comic of the same title (as opposed to the 1980s version, which was more like a Mortal Kombat-type story), there had been speculation for years that Doom would prove to be the ultimate villain of the sixth Avengers movie. There had also been speculation that Downey might return to make a cameo as a variant of Iron Man — but we don’t remember seeing anybody predicting the two would be intertwined.
In 2016, writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Alex Maleev made Infamous Iron Man, a story that centered on the idea of Victor Von Doom taking on the Iron Man identity after Tony Stark seemingly died (don’t worry, he didn’t really) in Civil War II. Bendis has been having some fun with that, sharing his own Iron Man/Doom art on Instagram:
The Downey-as-Doom announcement really sucked up a lot of oxygen last night, leaving all corners of the geek internet talking about the MCU again. We’ll see how much of that momentum can carry through to the release of Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* next year, but between the huge box office Deadpool & Wolverine is soaking up and the hype from San Diego, it’s easy to feel more bullish about the studio’s future than we were a year ago.
Downey’s Doom is expected to debut in Avengers: Doomsday in May 2026.
