During San Diego Comic Con, Marvel Studios revealed that Robert Downey Jr. will play the antagonist of the next Avengers, namely Doctor Doom. From this announcement, reactions are divided and for good reason: the return of the Iron Man actor is incomprehensible and above all alarmist for the state of the MCU.
This was the unmissable announcement of the weekend: at San Diego Comic Con, Marvel Studios has revealed that Doctor Doom will be the antagonist of the next Avengers and that he will be played by Robert Downey Jr, the interpreter of Iron Man/Tony Stark in the MCU. An announcement initially greeted with extraordinary enthusiasm, because the video of the event received more than 200 million views on Instagram, instantly becoming one of the 15 most viewed videos on the platform. And yet, as exciting as it may seem at first, this announcement seems more like an admission of failure than anything else for Marvel.
A disappointing easy solution
At first, this announcement raises more questions than anything else: since it was confirmed during this same panel that Doctor Doom would not be a variant of Tony Stark from the MCU, why did you choose Robert Downey Junior? On social networks, we have seen numerous references to stories that mix Iron Man and Doctor Doom. We think for example of Infamous Iron Man in which Doom thinks he is Iron Man, Superior Iron Man which depicts an evil version of Tony Stark or even a What If? called Iron Man Demon In An Armor in which Tony Stark is Doctor Doom. And yet, despite all these stories, it is not the case since Robert Downey Jr. will play Doctor Doom without it having any connection with Iron Man (at least, from what we know at the moment), except to please the fans by playing on nostalgia. Enough to spoil the magnificent end of Avengers: Endgame in which the actor said goodbye to his character and to this universe in the most beautiful way.
The return of Robert Downey Jr. is all the more incomprehensible as it spoils the introduction of Doctor Doom in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For comic book fans, Victor Van Doom is one of the greatest antagonists in the House of Ideas as he is charismatic, intelligent and ruthless. He is clearly one of the readers’ favorite villains.alongside Loki, Magneto, Doctor Octopus and far ahead of Thanos before he was rehabilitated by the films which gave him a popularity that he never knew in print. The problem is that seeing him with the features of Robert Downey Jr., spectators will see the shadow of Tony Stark and Iron Man constantly, which completely spoils the unique aura of one of the best villains in comic book history. This is all the more true since Robert Downey Jr. is a popular actor known to everyone, which makes it hard to break away from him when you see him on screen.
However, many actors had been considered for the role, whether by fans or by Marvel Studios according to rumors. Cillian Murphy, Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Charlie Clapham, Dan Stevens… There was plenty to choose from, with both big names and lesser-known actors, which is perfect for a character who never shows his face and whose mask is a central element of his identity.. But no, given the current state of the MCU, Disney prefers to play it safe by calling on Robert Downey Jr. and the Russo brothers, the duo behind Captain America: Winter Solider and Civil War, but especially the last two Avengers. In other words, the two directors to whom the studio owes its biggest successes. However, another path was possible.
The Kang problem
If we are here today, it is obviously largely because of the accusations of domestic violence against Jonathan Majors, the interpreter of Kang who was to be the new great antagonist of the MCU after Thanos. Faced with the seriousness of the facts, Disney chose to part ways with the actor logically, but even went further by deciding that Kang would simply no longer be the main threat of its current plot. A surprising decision, because one could have imagined that a simple recast could resolve the problem while retaining the antagonist. The name of Colman Domingo, for example, had been circulating to take over the role.
And then, it’s not as if the idea of a recast was completely absurd at Marvel. After all, we remember that Mark Ruffalo replaced Edward Norton to play Bruce Banner/Hulk and that Don Cheadle replaced Terrence Howard as James “Rhodey” Rhodes. Even more recently, we know that Harrison Ford will play General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross in place of William Hurt in Thunderbolts, but this time it is because of the actor’s death. For Kang, it would even be even easier to change actors since we are talking about a character who has thousands of different versions of himself across the multiverse, which even makes it possible to justify this change without worries.. If this practice is so common in the MCU, why not do it here?
In reality, we have the impression that Marvel Studios feels that the Multiverse saga does not captivate the crowds as much as that of Infinity and for them, the problem comes from Kang who would not be a charismatic enough antagonist. SO, this ousting of Jonathan Majors seems like the perfect opportunity to part ways with the character in order to fix the story along the way before it crashes and putting in its place a villain who talks to everyone, Doctor Doom, with an actor that everyone loves, Robert Downey Jr.. It is therefore more of an easy and above all desperate solution motivated by nostalgia while the universe has struggled to convince the public since the end of Endgame, despite films that are still profitable at the box office. Obviously, we just have to wait and see how the idea will be executed on the big screen, but clearly, the future of the MCU is far from assured and reassuring at the moment.
