The Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t been the same since Robert Downey Jr. left, but this franchise is going back to its roots. After giving a performance of a lifetime as Iron Man, Downey will return to the MCU as Doctor Doom, the villain of the two new Avengers movies.
Marvel’s presentation at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con has given us many amazing moments, but none of them compared to the Doctor Doom casting announcement. The Russo brothers built the hype by saying that this iconic villain would be played by “the greatest actor in the world” before a masked man in green stepped on stage.
The audience lost their minds when the mystery man took his mask off to reveal he was none other than Robert Downey Jr., the actor responsible for bringing Tony Stark/Iron Man to life. The Russos have described his casting as “proof of the unimaginable possibilities of the Marvel Universe.”
They’ll return to direct the next two Marvel movies – Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, set to be released in 2026 and 2027. Downey will appear in both, but it remains unclear if we’ll also get to see him in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, even though Doctor Doom is one of the main antagonists of this franchise.
