Were you as surprised as I was when it was announced that Robert Downey Jr. was returning to the MCU to play Doctor Doom? It was one hell of a bombshell to drop at San Diego Comic-Con last year, coming five years after he made his last appearance as Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man. Downey’s Doom will be the main antagonist of the upcoming Marvel movies Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, and understandably, we’re still in the dark about what’s in store for him. However, I went down the rabbit hole to read some theories on how Doom may be used in the MCU, and these are among the best ones.
Kicking off the deep dive I did on Reddit, @Top_Pick5313 speculates that Avengers: Secret Wars won’t be the end of Doctor Doom’s story, but rather the beginning of one that culminates in him facing off against the demonic entity Mephisto in a solo movie. Similar to the comics, Doom’s end goal would be exact revenge on Mephisto for taking his mother. The Redditor added:
Doom’s story would be the reverse of Thanos’ saga, as in unlike Thanos who was teased in bits & finished off in epic ensembles, Doom would start off with epic ensembles but will finish off with a solo film.
Of course, Robert Downey Jr. playing Doctor Doom raises the question of why the villain looks like Tony Stark. Is he merely a Tony variant or is there something else happening here? ResourceNo5855 believes that RDJ’s Doom is possessing the body of a Tony variant in an effort to get the Avengers and other heroes from Earth-616 to trust him. They also said this about why it wouldn’t be necessary to cast another actor as Doom down the line:
They also wouldn’t even really need to cast another actor to play Doom. it could just be a badly mutilated RDJ who’s just supposed to be another person but you can’t even tell because of the facial disfigurement or they just never show his face. That would kind of explain why he still wears a mask sometimes without having a mutilated face as Tony Stark because it’s a habit maybe and/or because Iron Man wore a mask technically idk.
Advanced_Thing7166 also thinks that Doctor Doom will be masquerading as Tony in Doomsday and Secret Wars. In their scenario, however, Doom is the ruler of the Latveria on the Fantastic Four’s Earth, but when that’s destroyed, he comes to Earth-616 to conquer its Latveria. After hearing about what happened to Tony, he uses his abilities to change his face, then stops Galactus from consuming Earth-616 so he can be hailed as a benevolent godlike figure. Then they said:
Then Fantastic Four arrive to 616 to warn them of Doom and Incursions but since Doom saved 616 its Avengers vs Fantastic Four alongside the X-Men Doom then slips up and is exposed but it's too late so they fight Doom and his multiversal Doom bots (think council of kangs but with Doom) and then they all fight Doom while incursions are happening eventually Doom creates Battleworld to stop the incursions.
Bitter_Swim3965 started off their theory with how RDJ’s Doom comes from the timeline in Avengers: Endgame where Earth-616’s Tony stole the Pym Particles from Howard Stark in 1970. Howard was blamed for that, and he and Maria were forced to escape to Latveria, where they raised their son, named Victor. From there, S.H.I.E.L.D. finds and blows up Howard and Maria, leaving the now-20-year-old Victor scarred and sets him on the path to forge his armor, learn magic at Kamar-Taj, take control of Latveria and build an army of Doombots to attack S.H.I.E.L.D. This leads to Nick Fury starting the Avenger Initiative, and then the following:
The Avengers try to stop him, but are no match for his combined magic and technology. Doom destroys SHIELD and steals the Tesseract. The Tesseract and sling ring combined allow him to move through the multiverse. He wants to protect the multiverse, by combining all universes into one singular one under his rule. This sets up Doomsday and Secret Wars, and possibly even allows him to become Infamous Iron Man after Secret Wars, like in the comics.
Finally, TheGreatMason speculated that Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom is also a straightforward Tony Stark variant, albeit one who also knows the mystic arts. So when he used the Infinity Stones to wipe out Thanos and his army, he survived because of his magic. They continued:
His face could be scarred the same way Tony's face was scarred at the end of Endgame and he could be the celebrated main hero of his home world. This would also give him more tools to manipulate the Avengers of 616. If he has the same exact scar as 616 Tony because he is the hero who saved that world from Thanos, there are more reasons to trust him when he says that X-Men from Earth 10005 are evil, right?
All of these are excellent theories, and maybe a few of them are even close enough to what will actually happen in the MCU. Alas, with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars both now delayed seven months in their respective release years, we have to wait even longer to have our questions answered. However, there are rumblings that this July’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps will see RDJ cameoing in the end-credits scene. So if that’s accurate, we can count on at least a little light being shed on the character.
For now, Avengers: Doomsday is set for release on December 18, 2026, and Avengers: Secret Wars follows on December 17, 2027. Feel free to revisit Robert Downey Jr.’s time as the heroic Iron Man by streaming his Marvel movies with your Disney+ subscription.
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