Avengers: Doomsday, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. May 2026.

I did not have "RDJ comes back to the MCU as a non-Stark character" on my bingo card

watch it be a multiverse version of Tony Stark.

edit: also if this is legit I am disappointed they didn't long-tease the reveal in movies or post credit scenes. this seems very un-marvel, maybe out of desperation. they straight up blew what could have been the biggest and most shocking reveal in history.

edit 2: also, how long until "I am Dr Doom!"
- Tony made Ultron as the ultimate defense around the world. I could see the idea going a slightly different way and that Tony being a little more ambitious/evil, next thing you know he's Doom.
It will almost certainly be a multi verse Tony Stark gone evil.
- And I'll bet anything it's Spider-Man that unmasks him and discovers it, leading to a whole mental breakdown by Peter.
- Or a Doombot with Stark’s face to fuck with the Avengers.

That seems like something they should’ve waited to reveal during the movie, like had some misdirection about RDJ just being in it for a flashback or a recorded video, just downplay it and make it seem small. Then bust the revelation out midway through the movie.

I'm sure they considered that possibility. But imagine the revenue. RDJ and Doom are both huge draws. Revealing them both in advance gets you more makes money gesture
- Now we can make money and make a shitty movie.
- but you can do that in other ways in-universe as they did with thanos and other upcoming characters. its very un-marvel.
- I found this post browsing All. I have had significant superhero fatigue right after infinity war part 2, after a whole decade of mild disbelief at how huge these once-niche characters have become.
  
  This headline definitely grabbed my attention, and as you said, the fact that they’re spoiling that he’s going to play Doom is why I checked this thread.
  
  revealing them both
  
  Even mentioning them as separate things wouldn’t have made me look. Their marketing machine is definitely working overtime to get the attention of people burned out on superhero movies.
I guess, that was not an option after all the data leaked from Disney🤔

...what?

The?
- F?
- Flip?

I don’t like it. Seems weird. An article I read said that he would NOT be playing a multiverse version of Doom, but actually Victor Von Doom.

Now, based on that I have two thoughts:

He was originally a Tony Stark multiverse version but became corrupted and no longer thinks of himself as Tony so he IS Victor Von Doom (like an identity shift).
He has Tony Stark’s face and will be revealed in a mask off moment. However, the twist is that it’s actually a Doombot and Tony’s face is used to mess with the Avengers. Maybe Doombots can have any face he chooses?

#2 would actually be a worthwhile twist.

Any of the others... Idk.
I think there's a more simply theory:

He never takes off the mask, and we never see his face.
Life Model Decoy of Tony shows up and infiltrates the Avengers before the big turn, revealing that it is actually under the control of Doom.

Why?

Because, dumbass.
- Well, they did ask for this treatment with that username.
- Shut up and bring out the ravioli
- Fair enough then.

I mean it’s definitely odd, but if he’s masked the whole time, then I guess it’s the same as any other actor doing it.

then by that logic why have RDJ do it anyway.
- Studio had about 75 million dollars laying around and figured, "what the hell?"
- I don't agree with the assertion that we definitely won't see his face, but the star power will be a draw.
Not exactly the same, as his voice will share qualities with Stark's (even with a good accent).

So they're doing a hard pivot away from the Kang stuff after the combination of the Majors scandal and underperformance of Quantumania?

What's the majors scandal?
- Assaulted his girlfriend.
- Domestic abuse
They already have, Loki Season 2 was tossed out the window in re-writes because of it.

Well now. That's a course correction.

No way lmao. It'll be good I'm sure, but Doom seems like a bigger bad than just one movie. Is he really jumping in for another round of films?

Is he really jumping in for another round of films?

His bed of money wasn't as comfortable anymore, so he wanted a bit more padding
I think it was announced he'd be doing 2 movies. Then I guess they can hand it over to whoever replaces him as Doom from the multiverse.
- that would just be setting up the next Doom as a major letdown. nothing about this makes any sense other than $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

I'm kind of weirdly excited because I've been wanting him to come back as Doctor Doom for awhile now but didn't think it would actually happen.

There's just so much room for character drama with our avengers having to make sense of a villainous version of their hero. Also room to play with the dichotomy of stark being a man of science and Doom more into magic.

Is there a reason you wanted RDJ for Doctor Doom? I haven't read the comics so I'm unfamiliar but I would have expected him not even to be in the conversation. Is there some kind of cannon connection between stark and him? I always thought his link was to the Fantastic Four primarily.
- Tony Stark and Victor Von Doom are entirely separate people. Unless there's some bizarre series I'm not aware of connecting them.
- There's a "What If...?" comic where Tony, not Reed Richards, is Vic's college roommate and Vic ends up stealing Tonys identity, literally a "Freaky Friday" Marvel version.
- I suppose they could make him Howard Stark's illegimate son but that'd be a bad move.

Iron Man can't be Doc Doom. No.

There's actually a multiverse where tony stark becomes doom. Just an fyi
- They've already stated Doom will be Victor, not "What if Tony Stark learned magic too." Though I suppose that could just be a lie/misinformation.
  
  To me the bigger question is if they're going to drop Kang as the next Big Bad or if Doom is going to be one and done.

MCU doesn’t really have a ‘proper’ Reed Richards, so the alternate universe Evil Reed from Secret Wars couldn’t work that way. The only brains of the MCU that could fill that role in that plot would be either Stark or Bannon, and the latter is a) still alive and b) already his own foil and his genius isn’t really played in the same way anyway. B-list alternative would be Hank Pym but he’s not been central to the MCU in anything like the same way as the other two.

Honestly I think it might work pretty well story-wise. Though actual reason is just… well, money. And the course correction aspect previously mentioned in these comments.

Isn't Pedro Pascal going to be Reed? He has some gravitas.
- Sure, and that will be great I’m sure, but an evil version of a character we’ve just been introduced to won’t hit the same.

cool spoilers

Ten to one this is a bullshit post. Unless someone can come up with a story on how that would even happen
- Isn't the multiverse their deus ex machina to explain all choices like this?
- It appears to have come from a legit account, and it's not April 1st...
- Permanently Deleted
- Tony: I need to protect the world at all costs. I will be the suit of armor around the world. Oh look, multiverse.

Uh oh the marketers and advertisers found lemmy.world

Heaven forbid someone actually enjoy something on Lemmy. Perhaps I should wax poetic how I hate everything and should thus be considered cool.

In before "I don't hate everything"
- I also enjoy things too but they often get wrecked by the influence of PR teams turning it all into giant commercials while using heavy censorship to control negative opinions of their product.

Been a huge fan of the MCU since highschool, never missed a TV show or movie.

It has been over 2 year since I watched anything Marvel and honestly at this point I couldn't care less.

...and yet, here you are commenting on a post in the Marvel Studios community.

I think you could care less.