In the event you’re confused by Robert Downey Jr.‘s shock return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you are not the one one. Throughout a star-studded San Diego Comedian-Con presentation from Corridor H on Saturday, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige introduced that the Russo Brothers are again to direct the Downey-fronted Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. In much more sudden information, Downey is not reprising his longtime position as Tony Stark, who heroically died in 2019’s Endgame —as a substitute, the Iron Man actor is enjoying the villainous Victor von Doom, the MCU’s Physician Doom.
“I do not get it, are you a baddie now?” Downey’s former Marvel co-star Gwyneth Paltrow wrote on Instagram after he shared the second he revealed his Physician Doom position to the Comedian-Con crowd (which you’ll watch in Part Zero’s video beneath).
Downey and Paltrow starred collectively in seven MCU motion pictures between 2008 and 2019, together with the Iron Man trilogy, 2012’s The Avengers, and 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. The actress seemingly dominated out her personal return to the franchise throughout a reside Q&A on Instagram in 2023, telling her followers: “We simply stopped doing it as a result of Iron Man died and why do you want Pepper Potts with out Iron Man? I do not know.”
Joe Russo prefaced the unmasking by describing Doom as “one of many extra complicated characters in all of comics, and probably one of many extra entertaining characters in all of fiction.”
“I feel we’ll want the best actor on the earth to play that character,” Russo teased. “As proof of the unimaginable prospects within the Marvel multi-universe, we provide the one one who can play Victor von Doom.” Taking the mic, Downey added: “New masks, identical job. What did I let you know? I like enjoying sophisticated characters.”
“Like Robert stated, ‘new masks, identical job,'” Anthony Russo stated. “And the duty for all of us, together with everyone on this room collectively, is for us to assist create the best potential expertise that we are able to all have collectively in a movie show. So let’s get to it. Carry your creativeness, your love, and your ardour, and we are going to see you in two years with Doomsday.”
Initially introduced as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty in 2022, Marvel pivoted away from multiversal villain Kang the Conqueror after actor Jonathan Majors was discovered responsible of 1 rely of third-degree assault and one rely of second-degree harassment in his 2023 home violence trial.
Marvel Studios dropped Majors and reconfigured the fifth Avengers movie to introduce the MCU Physician Doom, the central character within the Jonathan Hickman-penned Secret Wars storyline that has impressed Marvel Studios’ ongoing Multiverse Saga. Stephen McFeely, who co-wrote the Russo-directed Avengers: Infinity Struggle and Avengers: Endgame with writing accomplice Christopher Markus, can be on board to script Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday (set for Could 2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (set for Could 2027).
Keep tuned to ComicBook.com’s Comedian-Con hub for the most recent information and updates out of SDCC 2024.
