‘Avengers: Doomsday’: How Robert Downey Jr. Is Shaking Up the MCU Again

Doom. Is. Coming. Some 18 years after the Marvel Cinematic Universe launched its first feature with 2008’s Iron Man, and seven years after Avengers: Endgame put a narrative conclusion to the story of Thanos and his murderous quest for the Infinity Stones, Marvel’s heroes are about to meet their most intense threat yet: the man formerly known as Victor von Doom. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that their biggest villain is being played by not only one of the top stars in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the one responsible for starting it all: Robert Downey Jr.

As is the case with many Marvel movies prior to the premiere, little is known about Doom’s story and the direction it will take in Avengers: Doomsday — or even if Doom will be seen without his iconic mask. Adding more intrigue to Downey’s casting is whether or not the character, if he is unmasked, will present himself as a completely new face or if he will appear as a Tony Stark from another multiverse — one who, instead of turning into the heroic Tony we know and love, took a different path to notoriety.

One thing we do know about Doom: His comic book origins as a main enemy for the Fantastic Four will likely be a large part of his background. “Victor was always the smartest guy in every room,” Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) says in the film’s trailer, implying that the two share a history that predates Doom turning evil. “He used to be different. He used to be kind. He used to be caring — before everything he loved was taken from him. I knew he was lost, but I did not realize it: that he was broken.”

And this broken antihero will need more than just cross-teams of Avengers to stop him. Since 2016’s Doctor Strange opened the door to the concept of the multiverse — alternate timelines and realities where the same characters can exist with different stories — the MCU has been building up to a convergence of heroes that makes 2012’s epic team-up in The Avengers look small by comparison. Coming together: the Fantastic Four from the retro-futuristic 1960s reality known as Earth-828; the Avengers, the New Avengers, and Wakandans from the main universe that we’ve become familiar with, Earth-616; and the X-Men from the films originally produced under Fox from Earth-10005, who are making their Marvel Universe debut in this film. (Most of the X-Men characters appearing in Doomsday will be revived with a reboot in 2028 that introduces an all-new, strictly MCU-based team.)

Led by original Avenger Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his former teammate Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) — who has somehow been summoned from his life in the past to help his friends — these groups will try to figure out how to stop Doom. And it won’t be as easy as combining everyone’s strengths, as a key moment in the trailer shows an enraged Thor attempting to fight Doom, who is able to hold back his power with just one finger.

Hayley Atwell also returns as Peggy Carter, the SSR agent who first appeared in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger. The character’s road in the MCU has since been long and varied, with appearances in various films as well as her own short-lived ABC series, Agent Carter (2015–17). “I’d never thought 15, 16 years ago that I’d be standing here still talking about Peggy and the kind of enduring love story that so many fans have invested in,” Atwell told reporters at 2026’s San Diego Comic-Con. As for that moment in the trailer that shows Steve holding a baby that may or may not be Steve and Peggy’s child in the timeline Steve returned to? “Whether that is reality or a dream or a fantasy or a warning, who knows?” Atwell teased cheekily. “The beating heart of this story is human relationships.”

With Steve joining the fight, there’s a good chance that his specific decision to return to the past and remain there with Peggy after the heroes destroyed Thanos in Endgame is one of, if not the, catalyst that triggers Doom to retaliate. After all, as Tony warns Steve in that film, “When you mess with time, it tends to mess back.” One theory? Doom is manipulating incursions (a catastrophic event where two universes collide and destroy each other’s realities) because of something — or someone — he himself has lost.

The film’s directors, Anthony and Joe Russo, are no strangers to weaving complex team-ups and stories — after all, they’re the minds behind most of the MCU’s massive films: 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Endgame. Still, they’ve told fans that Doomsday is the biggest crossover that Marvel has ever done. In other words: Be prepared to witness something on screen that will change the direction of the MCU for years to come.

Or maybe we should let Downey himself tease what’s coming, as he did to the crowd during Marvel Studios’ hotly anticipated Hall H panel at the San Diego Comic-Con in July: “Perhaps you’re on the side of the good guys, or perhaps you’ll have to consider the alternative…of perhaps joining the family of Doom.”

TV Guide Magazine’s Avengers: Doomsday Special Issue is available for order online now at Avengers.TVBooks.com, and for purchase on newsstands nationwide.

Avengers: Doomsday, Movie Premiere, Friday, December 18, Theaters