Robert Downey Jr. Returns to the MCU to Play Doctor Doom

Everyone has been asking Robert Downey Jr. to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And now he is … but not as Iron Man.

At their big San Diego Comic-Con panel, Marvel Studios confirmed that the next film in the Avengers franchise is Avengers: Doomsday — the Avengers (and the Fantastic Four, apparently) versus Doctor Doom. And playing Doctor Doom in the film is … none other than Robert Downey Jr.

You can see (and hear) the reaction to Downey’s reveal below.

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Downey is not the only person returning for Avengers 5 either. Marvel confirmed at the panel that Joe and Anthony Russo — the directors of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame — will be returning to direct both Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars.

The news marks a radical change of plans for the film from what Marvel initially intended. Marvel formally announced Avengers 5 two years ago, at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. At that time, the film was dubbed Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, indicating that the movie would focus on the time-traveling villain Kang, played by Jonathan Majors.

But then Majors got in trouble with the law, and was fired by Marvel in December of 2023. Marvel quietly dropped The Kang Dynasty subtitle from the film and began simply referring to the film informally as Avengers 5. During this period, the film also lost its original director, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Destin Daniel Cretton. Clearly, it is an entirely different project now.

Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled for release on May 1, 2026. Avengers: Secert Wars is scheduled to follow on May 7, 2027. (It may be worth noting that in the Secret Wars comics of a few years ago, the main villain is … Doctor Doom.) I suspect that people are suddenly going to be a lot more interested in both of these films.