How can Iron Man become Doctor Doom?

Robert Downey Jr shocked San Diego Comic-Con in 2024 by revealing – six years after hanging up his Iron Man suit – that he was returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Oscar-winning actor is set to play Dr Victor von Doom in “Avengers: Doomsday”, due for release 18 December this year, and in its follow-up, “Avengers: Secret Wars”.

The reveal “sparked ear-splitting celebrations from the audience in the room” and fans around the world, said BBC Newsbeat, but sceptics “saw re-casting him as a different character as a sign of those in charge running low on ideas”.

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Why is Robert Downey Jr playing Doctor Doom?

Downey Jr’s surprise return to the MCU caused a multiverse-melting mix of joy and confusion among fans – because he was, of course, the star who kickstarted the multibillion-dollar Marvel franchise back in 2008 with his charismatic interpretation of Tony Stark and his Iron Man alter ego.

After more than 10 years and a string of $50 million paydays, Downey Jr hung up his “Iron Man” suit in 2019. But it has been a “challenge” for Marvel to find a protagonist to replace the large hole left by his retirement, said The Hollywood Reporter. That surely goes a long way to explaining why Downey Jr strode onto that stage in Doctor Doom costume to say, “New mask, same task”.

Who is Doctor Doom?

Dr Victor von Doom, also known as Doctor Doom, is one of the main villains of the Marvel Universe, and creator Stan Lee’s “favourite”. An evil but brilliant scientist and sorcerer with a trademark metal mask that hides his scarred face, he is best known as the “eternal nemesis” of the Fantastic Four, said comic book database Comic Vine.

The “tyrannical ruler of the technologically-advanced European country known as Latveria,” Doom “believes himself destined” to expand his power over “the rest of Earth, as well as the entire universe”, according to fan encyclopaedia Villains Wiki. Over the years, Doctor Doom has sparred not only with the Fantastic Four, but also Spider-Man, Red Skull, Mephisto and the Avengers.

So how can Downey Jr be Doctor Doom and Iron Man?

Downey Jr’s casting as Doctor Doom is a “huge development in the MCU timeline and has prompted fervent debate around how it will manage the fact he resembles the MCU’s most important hero: Iron Man”, said ScreenRant.

The most likely theory had been that the arch-villain would be played as an “evil Tony Stark variant”, said Forbes. “That’s not just pulled out of thin air” given there is an “actual comic source material precedent for this kind of storyline”. Marvel Comics has featured countless variations on body-swap and alternate reality plotlines, and indeed “there are versions of Doctor Doom in the Marvel multiverse who actually are Tony Stark”, said IGN.

But Downey Jr has publicly dismissed the Stark-variant idea.

That leaves a more obvious workaround for the double casting of Downey Jr: “you’ll never see Doom’s face” behind his mask, said Den of Geek. That the Oscar-winning actor will play Doom with “no Stark-strings attached” is the most “simple explanation”, said Forbes.

It would also be the “laziest” solution, said ScreenRant. “While Marvel had an opportunity to explore this uncanny resemblance in a meaningful way, their casting choices suggest they’re avoiding the issue entirely.”

This also begs the question why Marvel would be willing to pay Downey Jr tens of millions of dollars if you never actually see his face.

“With this kind of price tag on the table, one has to assume that Marvel Studios has a very pointed reason for putting this actor in that role”, said The Wrap. “For this reason, it’s hard to imagine that Downey’s Doctor Doom will be entirely unrelated to his portrayal of Tony Stark – two characters that, though certainly not strangers, don’t have the most significant relationship in Marvel Comics.”

What do we know for sure?

Fans were given their first sight of the arch-villain in the mid-credits scene of last year’s hit “The Fantastic Four: First Steps”. Taking place four years after the events in the film, we see a cloaked man standing over Franklin Richards, holding an instantly recognisable silver mask in his hand.

Played by an unseen Downey Jr “you don’t need to be an expert to know that this is Doctor Doom”, said Radio Times, and “this little glimpse” certainly did “a lot to whet the appetites of fans”.

The truth is “we won’t know for sure what he’s up to until we get a proper look at Downey Jr in action”, said Mark Hibbett, the self-declared “world’s leading (and also only) academic expert on Doctor Doom”, also in Radio Times.

“For that we need to have a proper full-length trailer of him dooming it up in the mask and cape, and we might get that sooner than we expect,” with many looking to the Super Bowl on 8 February, when Marvel has traditionally shown a trailer during half-time.

Who else is joining for “Avengers: Doomsday”?

“It’s almost easier to name an A-lister who isn’t involved, such is the vast length of its call sheet,” said BBC Newsbeat. Alongside Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the Fantastic Four, those returning for the next Avengers instalment include MCU stalwarts such as Chris Evans’ Captain America, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange. They will be joined by the likes of Florence Pugh, Hayley Atwell and Letitia Wright.

Perhaps the most excitement is reserved for the return of several figures from the “X-Men” franchise, after Disney’s deal to buy 20th Century Fox finally reunited the different universes under the Marvel banner. These include Patrick Stewart’s Professor X and Ian McKellen’s Magneto, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler and James Marsden as Cyclops, as well as Channing Tatum repeating his turn as Gambit after the hugely successful “Deadpool & Wolverine”.