Over the weekend at San Diego Comic Con, Marvel made some pretty big announcements for the future of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The biggest ones are that the next two Avengers movies will be directed by the Russo brothers. They previously did the last two Avengers movies, Infinity War and Endgame. A few years ago it was announced that Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars would be the next ones, with Jonathan Majors playing Kang the Conqueror. Majors played multiple instances of Kang in Ant-Man and Loki, but had some legal troubles that lead to his firing. Since then, people wondered if he would be recast or if they would drop the Kang storyline all together. There were some rumors suggesting Majors had it in his contract that he is the only person who would be allowed to play Kang. Now we have some idea of what Marvel’s plans actually are. Joe and Anthony Russo will be directing Avengers Doomsday and Avengers Secret Wars.
The second and probably bigger announcement that was made, is that Robert Downey Jr. will be coming back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He won’t be playing Iron Man though, instead he will be playing Doctor Doom. There is no word yet on if this will be a Tony Stark variant or if he will be playing Victor Von Doom. The only clue we got was that Robert Downey Jr. said on stage as well on his Instagram post “new mask, same task”. What does this mean? It could be a hint that Doctor Doom and Iron Man have the same goal, protect their worlds.
Robert Downey Jr said “new mask, same task” after being revealed
So far, Doctor Doom has appeared in every Fantastic Four movie made, first by Julian McMahon and then by Toby Kebbell. Robert Downey Jr. almost played Doctor Doom before being beat out for the role by Julian McMahon previously.
The first Fantastic Four movie made by Marvel Studios titled The Fantastic Four: The First Steps has just started production. It will star Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards AKA Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm AKA The Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm AKA Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm AKA The Thing. The movies will be set in a 1960s New York City that is in a different universe than the main MCU. Robert Downey Jr.’s Victor Von Doom could come from that universe. We already know that variants may or may not look identical, as we saw Benedict Cumberbatch as multiple versions of Stephen Strange, but also saw John Krasinski as a different Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. If Robert Downey Jr. does not appear in The First Steps, then it will be the first Fantastic Four movie without a Doctor Victor Von Doom.
The Fantastic Four comic first debuted in November 1961 written by Stan Lee and with artwork by Jack Kirby (no relation to Vanessa Kirby). The original Secret Wars comic was written in the 1980s by Jim Shooter and the art was done by Mike Zeck and Bob Layton. As far as I can tell, there is no Doomsday comic series or event by Marvel, however since Doomsday is another word for the last day of the world and in Doctor Stange in the Multiverse of madness, Strange was told that he helped cause an incursion to occur, the two could very well be related. Perhaps in Avengers Doomsday earth-616 and the Fantastic Four’s earth are about to collide. Doomsday could be the last days of the worlds and Doom doing anything in his power to save it, hence Robert Downey Jr’s “new mask, same task” line, since Iron Man sacrificed himself to save his universe in Avengers Endgame.
No matter what happens, this is probably some of the most exciting news I heard come of San Diego Comic Con. Avengers Doomsday comes out on May 1, 2026 and Avengers Secret Wars comes out over a year later on May 7, 2027. What do you think, are you excited about the next Avengers movies? How do you feel about the directors or actor announcement? Was something else announced that has you hyped up? Let us know!
