Credit: Marvel StudiosRobert Downey Jr.’s return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Doctor Victor Von Doom is some of the biggest and most surprising news in pop culture right now, but not just for fans. It turns out his fellow Avengers have been blindsided by the news, too.
At San Diego Comic-Con 2024, Marvel Studios President and Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige produced a slew of new material to try to pump up MCU fans who may or may not be suffering from “superhero fatigue.”
A new trailer for Captain America: Brave New World was shown, and the ever-grouchy Harrison Ford even seemed to be enjoying himself. Marvel’s attempt at a Suicide Squad, Thunderbolts*, finally received a teaser, while The Fantastic Four revealed a subtitled (“First Steps“) and we got a glimpse at Ralph Ineson as Galactus.
But the biggest reveal of all was not only that the upcoming Avengers: The Kang Dynasty had been retitled to Avengers: Doomsday and that Jonathan Majors (as Kang and all his Multiversal Variants) had been replaced as the central villain of the franchise by the iconic Doctor Doom. The actor to play Doom? None other than the former Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr.
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Also, Anthony and Joe Russo would return to direct Doomsday and Secret Wars, but it was clear that RDJ in a “new mask, same task” was the big deal fo the day.
Hall H exploded into rapturous applause, and the Internet followed nearly as quickly with a huge backlash over whether this meant that Avengers: Endgame (2019) had been devalued, whether a Romani actor should have been cast in the role, and whether even as beloved an actor as Robert Downey Jr. merited the reported $100+ million payday he would net for Doomsday and Secret Wars.
It turns out that Marvel Studios did not just keep the new casting of the former Tony Stark secret from fans, but not even RDJ’s fellow Avengers knew what was about to happen at Comic-Con. Speaking to People, Hawkeye actor Jeremy Renner revealed that he had been stunned by the news and immediately began blowing up Downey Jr.’s phone on the famous World’s Mightiest Heroes group chat.
According to Jeremey Renner, he “had no idea. This son of a b***h didn’t say anything to me, and we’re good friends. I’m like, ‘What’s going on? Are you hiding this from us?’ I don’t know. That’s exciting news, man. I’m really, really excited about it.”
This does raise the question of which Avengers knew what and when they knew it, and also which of them we might expect to see in Doomsday and Secret Wars. At this point, the actual lineup of the superhero group in the MCU is a little vague; Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans seem to have definitively left the franchise, at least as their original MCU characters, but clearly, Feige is ready to do some fun recasting.
Related: The Marvel Cinematic Universe Has Been Rebooted After All
Renner continued, “It seems the Avenger movies have always been really fan favorites, and there’s so many wonderful characters in them. I think it’s going to be challenging to get everybody together. I think they’re going to probably have to piece it together like week-by-week, just for people’s schedules. We’ll have to figure it out. It’s all brand new. It all just happened. They just made the announcement, so I guess we got to start figuring it all out.”
While the actor seemed to have passed on the mantle of Hawkeye to Hailee Steinfeld in their joint Disney+ series, Taylor Sheridan must not be keeping Renner busy enough.
Do you think the original Avengers will ever reassemble?