Robert Downey Jr. may have spent more than a decade as Marvel’s beloved Iron Man, but the actor now has a surprising favourite: Doctor Doom.
While promoting the highly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday, the 61-year-old legend was asked about stepping into the shoes of Marvel’s iconic villain after years of playing Tony Stark.
“Doom, for now,” he told Good Morning America, explaining that playing the villain has allowed him to experience something he missed during his Iron Man years.
“I got to really observe what I’ve been missing the whole time, just everybody else,” he shared.
The Avengers actor played Tony Stark/Iron Man from his debut in 2008’s Iron Man through Avengers: Endgame in 2019, roughly 11 years at the center of the MCU.
His Doctor Doom era, meanwhile, is only beginning as Marvel announced his casting in 2024, with Avengers: Doomsday marking his major arrival as Doom.
And the stakes in Doomsday are enormous.
The film is set to bring together heroes from multiple universes, with Marvel using the collision of realities to unite characters who previously belonged to separate franchises.
The story brings together the Avengers and other heroes from the main MCU universe with the Fantastic Four and the X-Men from other realities.
The enormous ensemble includes Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Letitia Wright as Shuri/Black Panther, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen as Magneto and James Marsden as Cyclops.
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026. It will serve as a major chapter in Marvel’s Multiverse Saga before Avengers: Secret Wars, which is scheduled for December 2027.
