Robert Downey Jr. is Doctor Doom!

 

photo by Gage Skidmore

It was announced last night at San Diego Comic Con that Robert Downey Jr. would be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  But this time he would not be returning as the flagship character Iron Man.  Instead, Downey Jr. will portray arguably the greatest Marvel villain: Doctor Doom.

I have to say that I was caught completely off guard by this.  I know that Downey Jr. has said that he was finished with the character Tony Stark.  While he loves Tony and is grateful for everything that character brought to his life, Downey Jr. felt that he had said everything he wanted to say about Iron Man.

Since leaving the MCU, he won a much-deserved Oscar for Oppenheimer.  I would imagine that after spending years as a "movie star," he had the desire to prove himself again as an actor.  With that accomplishment under his belt, I am imagining he felt free to return to his comic book roots.  (Of course all of this is speculation).  

I'm sure we will be getting more details in the future, but here are my initial thoughts:

CONS:

Phase IV and V of Marvel has not been great.  With the exception of Spider-Man: No Way Home (which is mostly a Sony film) and Deadpool & Wolverine, the MCU has not had the same mega-hits as before.  Some people say that it is super hero fatigue, but that is not the reason.

I worry that by bringing in RDJ, the original MCU hero, that he might get The Last Jedi treatment.  He might be there so that the old legacy of Marvel can be taken down a peg so that their newer stars can rise to the top.  This is not far-fetched if you look at how this occured over and over again in the comics.  RDJ might be back only so that they can give greater gravity to whichever hero Marvel wants to make its central hero.  

This would be consistant with the new female Black Panther, Hawkeye, Thor, Scarlett Scarab (Moon Knight), She-Hulk, Echo, Cassie Lang, G'iha (Secret Invasion), etc.  

My other worry is that by relying on its past glory days, Marvel may miss out on some new and exciting stories to tell..

PROS

I am actually incredibly excited by this development.

Doctor Doom has never been properly portrayed on the big screen.  Too often he comes of as a generic megalomaniac.  But Doom has a gravitas, a presence that is matched only by his immense power.  RDJ said that he loved playing complex characters.  This tells me that he and Marvel understand that Doom is not another bad guy.  He, like Thanos, is the hero of his own story: someone who will do what he thinks needs to be done no matter what anyone thinks.

I do not know if his resemblance to Tony Stark will be a major plot point, but if it is, it can have some fantastic character applications.  Dan Murrel mentioned in his reaction video that this would be a tremendous opportunity to delve into Spider-Man's character.  Tony was his father figure and his dying hero.  But to face him as a villain: that is something on the level of Luke Skywalker fighting Darth Vader.  In fact, the entire MCU looks up to him.  What will it be like to see someone with all of Tony's hardness but none of his softness?

I am also very excited to see how RDJ portrays Doom.  I am assuming that he is not going to give Doom Tony's personality, but I could be wrong.  I think RDJ would want to play someone completely other in order to make both of those characters as distant as possible so that you at times forget that they are portrayed by the same person.

Wouldn't it be incredible if they took the dark mirroring of the character even further?  Just as Tony was the hero that led to the Avengers, what if Doom assembles an anti-Avengers made of the great villains to take on our heroes.   Again, I'm just spit-balling, but that's the point:

Casting RDJ opens up all new amazing possiblities for the MCU

Thoughts?