Robert Downey Jr. Explains His Unlikely Return to Marvel

Robert Downey Jr. is opening up about his surprising return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as supervillain Doctor Doom.

The New York Post reports that Downey Jr. gave the inside scoop on the latest episode of the Awards Chatter podcast from The Hollywood Reporter.

According to the Oscar winner, the idea that he would return was brought up in a conversation with his wife, Susan Downey, and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.

“Susan [Downey] and I were sitting down with Feige at one point, and he said, ‘It just keeps occurring to me that if you were to come back,’ and Susan was like, ‘Wait, come back as what?’” Downey Jr. explained.

“And he brought up Victor Von Doom,” he added. “And I looked into it as a character, and I was like, ‘Wow.’ But later on he goes, ‘Let’s get Victor Von Doom right.'”

Downey Jr.’s return to the MCU comes more than five years after his character Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, was killed off in Avengers: Endgame.

Following the trio’s conversation, the Sherlock Holmes star met with Disney CEO Bob Iger to fill him in on the project. According to the actor, Iger enjoyed their pitch.

All of these meetings led up to the main event—Downey Jr. unmasking himself as Doctor Doom at San Diego’s Comic Con. At the July panel, he made his grand entrance and proclaimed to the cheering crowd, “New mask, same task.”

Avengers: Doomsday, directed by the Russo brothers, is set to be released in May 2026.

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