All Doom, No Gloom
Zack Sharf
Somehow, Robert Downey Jr. returned:
Robert Downey Jr. is returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Doctor Doom in a new “Avengers” movie titled “Avengers: Doomsday,” which will be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo in their own return to Marvel. The directing duo is on deck to helm two new “Avengers” movie: “Doomsday,” which will introduce Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom, and “Avengers: Secret Wars.”
While Downey had said in recent interviews that he was open to returning to Marvel, fans naturally assumed that meant he would come back as Iron Man/Tony Stark. Downey’s return as the villainous Victor von Doom comes as a massive shock to the fandom, including the ecstatic audience at Marvel’s presentation at San Diego Comic-Con. Downey made a victorious appearance to Hall H on Saturday evening to reveal his return.
I'm of two minds with this. First, Marvel was obviously put in a tough spot by Jonathan Majors, the actor who they chose to portray Kang, who was to be the central villain in the next Avengers movie. After his assault conviction, that was over. It was either re-cast Kang or figure something else out.
At the same time, the build up to The Kang Dynasty was already losing steam with a lackluster showing in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. His entrance in Loki had been pretty good, but the third Ant-Man movie was a mess beyond just its awful title.1 So yeah, a pivot was both warranted and needed. Step one was bringing back the Russo Brothers. As I wrote in my newsletter last week:2
Somehow, the Russo brothers may return to direct the new Avengers movies for Disney/Marvel. Not a huge surprise given the fiasco of the franchise (due to the Jonathan Majors situation) at the moment and the Russos lack of success outside that cinematic universe. But can they salvage the next film in the less than two years before it's due to be released?
Well, it looks like they can. Step two was mind-erasing folks about the Kang timeline and stopping all the chatter about concerns over the future of Marvel in its tracks by bringing back Robert Downey Jr. Boom.
And yet, it was always going to feel a bit lazy to go back to this well. This is nothing new for Disney, of course. While "Somehow Palpatine returned" may have been the laziest line in the history of modern cinema, it was also just a lazy plot point too, of course. Sure, this is a bit different because Downey Jr. is not coming back as Iron Man, so Kevin Feige gets to keep his word:
After 10 films, Downey’s Iron Man made his exit in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, still a high-water mark for the series. Marvel has a reputation for resurrecting characters who seemingly meet their ends, but Feige says that won’t happen to Stark. “We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again,” Feige says. “We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way.”
Of course, the same thing was said about the death of Logan/Wolverine and well, guess who came back to life this weekend? Yeah, yeah, a different variant of Wolverine or whatever, but come on. And there too it was undoubtedly needed and probably warranted in order to integrate the Fox Marvel assets into the MCU. But still, it's a crutch.
You can't help but be reminded of a great athlete attempting a comeback on a new team. It's exciting at first, but also strange seeing them in a new uniform. And then if they're no longer any good, or a shell of their former selves, it's often depressing. The good news here is that physical skills and stamina are less important in acting than in athletics. And actors often get better as they age...
Without question, the Doctor Doom reveal on stage was great though.3 And he was always my favorite villain as a kid, so I'm happy he's in good hands.4 I can't wait until the even bigger reveal: how much Downey Jr. is getting paid for this.
Update July 30, 2024: There seem to now be some monetary numbers regarding Downey Jr.'s involvement...
M.G. Siegler
1 Avengers: Doomsday is just a great title though. Far better than Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. (Which, yes, I recognize is the name of a comic storyline.)
2 Yes, making the same "Somehow..." joke everyone else is now making about Downey Jr. -- including myself above. But you see, I can because I was FIRST.
3 Obviously it called back to a few moments of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark but also the very Iron Man reveal at a press conference. It was just fun. Almost like the lead up to a wrestling match?
4 I really wanted to love Julian McMahon as Doom in the 2005/2007 films, as I was a huge Nip/Tuck fan, but sadly those movies were just pretty poor Spider-Man clones. Toby Kebbell as Doom I barely even remember from 2015's reboot, because I barely remember anything about that version