Avengers Doomsday: Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom will be very different from Iron Man

The actor will return to the Marvel universe, but certainly not to play Tony Stark again: Kevin Feige and the Russo brothers promise a radically different Doctor Doom, whose performance will mix acting and digital effects.

The return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU and Avengers Doomsday inevitably raised a question: how can the actor who played Iron Man for more than ten years now play Doctor Doom, one of the Avengers’ greatest enemies, without the two characters looking similar? For Joe Russo, the answer is very clear:

“There is absolutely no similarity to Iron Man.“

In an interview given to Empire Magazinethe director explains that Downey Jr.’s performance is “a combination of several things”notably thanks to the digital effects used to bring the famous Marvel character to life. His brother Anthony Russo specifies that the actor was very physically involved in the filming: “Downey was on set, he played everything. As we are creating the character with a digital layer, this also allows us to do a second pass and see what we can do digitally.”

A technique that Downey already knows well, since he was able to observe its use with James Spader for Ultron and Josh Brolin for Thanos. In the case of Doctor Doom, this digital dimension will be particularly important since the character’s face will remain hidden behind his famous mask. The actor’s voice, accent and gestures must therefore play an essential role in his interpretation.

And Kevin Feige seems particularly confident in the choice of Robert Downey Jr. to play the big bad ofAvengers: Doomsday.

The Marvel boss believes that the actor is “the greatest actor of his time” and that he “can play absolutely everything”. According to Feige, Downey would also have “found quite quickly” the right way to interpret Doom.

The challenge is significant. Because before Robert Downey Jr., Doctor Doom was already played in the cinema by Julian McMahon in Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer (2007), then by Toby Kebbell in the 2015 reboot. Interpretations which never really convinced fans. Empire brutally sums up the problem: Doctor Doom “was never done correctly” at the cinema.

For Marvel, Avengers: Doomsday will therefore be an opportunity to correct this error. The film directed by Anthony and Joe Russo will place the character at the heart of the plot and will bring together several generations of Marvel heroes. The Avengers, the Fantastic 4 and the X-Men will be there to face the threat of Doom.

Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 16, 2026 in cinemas in France, before Avengers: Secret Warsexpected on December 15, 2027.