Tony Stark may have died in 2019, but Robert Downey Jr. is coming back as someone completely new with Doctor Doom.
While fans can be heads-or-tails about the news, Downey himself has explained what Marvel’s approach was when it came to bringing him back. Talking to THR’s Awards Chatter podcast, Downey explains, “[Marvel head Kevin Feige said] how can we not go backwards, how do we not disappoint expectations, how we can continue to beat expectations … Let’s get Victor Von Doom right”
We don’t know what ‘getting Victor Von Doom right’ means for Marvel, but we can only surmise that they’ve come up with an angle that they think isn’t going to disappoint by bringing RDJ in. A lot of fans do think that it’s ironic that they would try not to ‘go backwards’ but still end up bringing back the guy that started this whole MCU in the first place.
For now, everyone is just speculating on how exactly Marvel is going to pull off Robert Doom-ney Jr. The easiest explanation would be that Doom is a variant of Tony Stark from a different timeline, but some are suspecting that this Doom was Tony Stark if he never got to have his experience as a hostage in a cave way back in the first Iron Man. He would have just kept making weapons until he got filthy rich enough to buy a country and become its ruler.
For all the things that can go wrong with the casting, RDJ’s talent alone makes fans hopeful that he’ll be able to pull this off. While I’m in the camp that wanted a new actor, I’m willing to let Marvel cook with this casting in the meantime.
Avengers: Doomsday is expected to come to theaters on May 1, 2026.
