Robert Downey Jr returns to Marvel for two Avengers movies, but not as Iron Man

There’s a 30 Rock joke for everything.

In a season five episode, Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy is outlining his priorities for reviving NBC’s fortunes and one of his tactics is to “Make it 1997 again through science or magic”.

Right now, that’s basically the formula Marvel is executing but instead of 1997, it’s 2019 when the studio was at its peak and Avengers: Endgame dominated the cinema zeitgeist and broke box office records with its $US2.79 billion box office haul.

The “everything old is new again” philosophy was certainly on show today at San Diego Comic-Con when Marvel boss Kevin Feige revealed Robert Downey Jr, the franchise’s most bankable star, was returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for two movies, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

And to boot, the two films will be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, the filmmaking brothers who helmed two Captain America and two Avengers films.

However, Downey Jr. will not be playing Tony Stark/Iron Man. Instead, he will play Doctor Doom, one of the grand villains of the Marvel comics.

The Downey Jr. reveal was staged with dramatic fanfare as Feige and the two Russos were flanked by extras stressed in green robes while a masked figure in Doctor Doom costume walked out to greet the audience.

Joe Russo said, “If we’re going to bring Doctor Doom to the screen – he is one of the most complex characters, most entertaining characters in all of fiction – if we’re going to do this, then we are going to need the greatest actor in the world.

“As proof of the unimaginable possibilities of the Marvel Universe, we give you the one person who could play Victor von Doom…”

Downey Jr. then flung his mask off and stretched both arms out as if he were a Christ figure. The assembled crowd of 6500 fans in at SDCC’s Hall H roared.

It’s unclear how Downey Jr’s embodiment of a seemingly different character in the MCU continuity will be explained. All he said on stage was “new mask, same task”.

Avengers: Doomsday is now the fifth Avengers movie, which was previously subtitled The Kang Dynasty.

The studio had to retool the film after Jonathan Majors, who had been cast as Kang the Conqueror and who had appeared as the characters in one film and a TV series, was convicted of assaulting and harassing his ex-girlfriend. Marvel cut ties with the actor after the verdict.

Avengers: Secret Wars is slated for release in May 2025 while Avengers: Doomsday will drop in May 2026.

Downey Jr and the Russos had previously “retired” from the MCU after Avengers: Endgame.

Marvel is celebrating a huge weekend with SDCC coinciding with the opening days of Deadpool & Wolverine, its only cinema release for 2024. The Deadpool film was projected to open in the US in the $US160 million to $US175 million range but has since been revised up to over $US200 million after a mammoth opening day on Friday and Thursday previews of $US96 million.

The MCU has been stuck in a slump since the release of Avengers: Endgame, beset by the pandemic and lukewarm reception to its subsequent films, many of which were centred on new characters. Its most recent release before Deadpool & Wolverine was The Marvels, which closed at $US206 million and failed to make back its production budget.

Doctor Doom is a supervillain created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared on the page in 1962. He is traditionally the archnemesis of Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four.

The screen rights to the Fantastic Four characters had previously belonged to 20th Century Fox until Disney acquired Fox in 2019 for $US71 billion. An upcoming Fantastic Four movie will soon enter production with Pedro Pascal as Richards, alongside Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joe Quinn.

The Marvel panel at SDCC also revealed the full title of the movie will be Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Quinn told the audience, “We are all collectively going to bring an essence that is a family. Rather than thinking about what individually we are going to bring, it’s a team sport. We are going to work very hard to bring a feeling of family to this film.”

Marvel also showed footage from upcoming films Thunderbolts* (the title now has an asterisk but Feige wouldn’t say why, only that it will become clear by the end of the movie) and Captain America: New World Order.

Thunderbolts cast members including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Wyatt Russell, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen and Sebastian Stan were on stage while Harrison Ford and Anthony Mackie were present for the Captain America presentation.