In the greatest comeback since Lazarus, Robert Downey Jr is back in the MCU but he won't be playing Iron Man and instead has been cast as the villain Doctor Doom.
Downey Jr played Tony 'Iron Man' Stark in eight Marvel movies between 2008 and 2019 before the character was emotionally killed off in Avengers: Endgame .
At San Diego Comic-Con directors Joe and Anthony Russo confirmed the Oscar winner's return to the cinematic universe where he will no longer be playing Tony Stark but instead Victor Von Doom aka Doctor Doom, the supervillain ruler of the fictional nation of Latveria.
Downey Jr should be right at home playing Doom as the character shares a lot of traits with Tony Stark. Both are scientists and inventors who have genius-level intellects. Both have created armies or robots and both wear suits of armour that cover their entire body. The only major difference is that one leans on the side of good while the other supports evil.
Downey Jr is expected to debut as Doom in 2026's Avengers: Doomsday and given that is two years away there will be a lot of speculation about how this version of the character will be portrayed.
A strong theory doing the rounds is that this could be an adaptation of the 2017 comic-book storyline 'Infamous Iron Man'. The story by veteran comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis, revolves around Doom, in a quest to be more heroic, taking the mantle of Iron Man from Tony Stark following the events of 'Civil War II.'
The story heavily involves Doom's primary adversaries, the Fantastic Four, who are also set to make their MCU debut in 2025 in a movie starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bacharach and Joseph Quinn.
Many fans have already started to draw conclusions from the casting and making reference to the Infamous Iron Man story. One fan said: "WAIT HOLD UP ARE WE GETTING INFAMOUS IRON MAN DOCTOR DOOM WITH ROBERT DOWNEY JR??"
Another wrote: "The way that Marvel is about to try to pull off an MCU-infamous Iron Man trilogy is absolutely crazy work. Because I promise you they're going for it Infamous Iron Man trilogy INCOMING."
However, some fans have suggested that the Doom announcement might be a bluff and Downey Jr could be returning as a villainous version of Stark known as Superior Iron Man, a more selfish, evil and egotistical version of the character.
One fan chimed: "How do you do Superior Iron Man in the MCU? You make him Dr. FN DOOM."
Another said: "It has to be a smoke screen. RDJ playing Infamous Iron Man would be an incredibly bizarre decision. But if we're talking Superior Iron Man…"
Marvel is currently playing out a so-called 'Multiverse Saga' which has been heavily explored in movies like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Deadpool and Wolverine . This in theory would allow them to bring back another version of Stark without retconning Downey Jr's original take on the character.
Doom has been portrayed on the big screen before by the likes of Julian McMahon and Toby Kebbell but appeared in widely derided movies where the essence of the complex character was never fully realised.
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