Credit: Inside the MagicA recent report claims that Doctor Doom may take its toll on Robert Downey Jr.’s career.
It’s only been five years since Robert Downey Jr. left the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Tony Stark/Iron Man sacrificing himself in the finale of Avengers: Endgame (2019), and yet the MCU’s MVP is already on his way back into the fray.
As was announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July, Downey Jr. is set to return to the franchise. This time around, he’ll be playing Victor Von Doom – AKA Doctor Doom, the new big-bad of the Multiverse Saga after Jonathan Majors’ exit as Kang the Conqueror.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Return as Doctor Doom
While there are rumors aplenty that Downey Jr. will debut in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), for now, all we know is that he’ll appear in Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027).
Much like Thanos in the Infinity Saga, it’s thought that Downey Jr. will take on the role of a main character in these films (did you really expect anything less from an actor being paid upwards of $100 million for his return?).
Also like Thanos, industry scooper MTTSH previously claimed that “Doom isn’t truly evil; he believes he’s saving the Multiverse from incursions. According to his twisted logic, the only way for the Multiverse to survive is to unify all universes in one place (Battleworld) under his rule. He sees this as the sole path to ensuring survival for everyone.”
Will Doctor Doom Lose Downey Jr. His Next Role?
Reactions have been pretty split to Downey Jr.’s casting, with some dismissing it as a desperate attempt for the MCU to regain some relevance after a turbulent few years and others theorizing that his appearance could play into a much larger arc that we are yet to to understand.
We’ll have to wait until 2026 to find out how this plays out, but in the meantime, there are rumors that Downey Jr.’s casting is having an unforeseen impact on his acting career.
Having recently won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer (2023) – a role that many credited as a long-awaited legitimization of his acting career after over a decade as Tony Stark – it was rumored that Downey Jr. would soon reunite with director Christopher Nolan for his next film outing.
The currently unnamed Nolan film—which will also star MCU co-star Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, and Matt Damon—is set for release in 2026. According to industry insider Daniel Richtman, Nolan was looking to lock down Downey Jr. for a second go at success, but playing Doctor Doom is making this near impossible.
Richtman claims that Doctor Doom is “very much the main character in Avengers: Doomsday like Thanos was in Infinity War,” with Downey Jr. expected to star in “almost every scene.”
Thanks to the time pressure of the role, this means Downey Jr. is unlikely to have enough time to commit to Nolan, with the MCU once again taking priority in the actor’s schedule. Whether that’s for better or worse remains to be seen—but it seems 2026 will hold the answer.
Do you think Marvel made the right choice bringing back Downey Jr.?