Robert Downey Jr. has finally returned to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with an uncredited cameo appearance as Doctor Doom in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and the supervillain is taking Downey back to his Marvel Studios roots in the best possible way. Downey was confirmed to be bringing Victor Von Doom to life during 2024’s San Diego Comic-Con, and was then teased to be starring only in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars. Since this announcement, there has been speculation about how Doom will connect to Downey’s previous role of Tony Stark’s Iron Man.
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Theories have been rife suggesting Doctor Doom could be a Tony Stark variant from Earth 828, or Marvel Studios could finally be bringing Stark’s adoption storyline from Marvel Comics to life in the MCU. While it’s unclear how Marvel will explain why Doom looks like Stark, there is another thing connecting these iconic characters that deserves exploration in Avengers: Doomsday, too. Both Iron Man and Doctor Doom wear metallic armored suits, which prompted Downey’s “new mask, same task” comments last year, and these suits may be more similar than we originally expected.
Doctor Doom Doesn’t Use Nanotech for His MCU Costume
The bulk of The Fantastic Four: First Steps saw Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn’s Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Ben Grimm battle Galactus (Ralph Ineson), who sought the Power Cosmic contained inside Reed and Sue’s newborn son, Franklin. They eventually succeeded with the help of Shalla-Bal’s Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), enabling Franklin to grow up into an intelligent young boy. The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ mid-credits scene reflected this, taking place four years after Galactus’ attack on Earth, but this scene debuted yet another terrifying villain.
It was Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom who showed up in The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ mid-credit scene – making his first uncredited appearance in the MCU. We didn’t see Doom’s face, but Franklin Richards did, as the hooded supervillain held his metal mask in his hand while Franklin reached out to Doom’s presumably-scarred face. This proved one crucial detail about Doom’s suit of armor – it won’t be made using nanotechnology. This means that Robert Downey Jr will be returning to his MCU roots by bringing Doom to life, as Tony Stark’s first few suits weren’t nanotech either.
The fact that Doctor Doom will have a physical suit that needs to be put together in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars will make him an even more terrifying and realistic villain. He may have forged this armor himself, just as Tony Stark did in the early days of the MCU, which may give the armor a handmade and authentic feel. This is the best choice for Doctor Doom, and will remind audiences of Iron Man’s original adventures, during which he sported suits he needed to physically suit-up in, before he turned his attention to nanotechnology in his later years.
Why Iron Man Became So Reliant On Nanotech in the MCU’s Infinity Saga
2008’s Iron Man marked Robert Downey Jr.’s debut as Tony Stark, and cemented him as the face of the MCU for the next decade. The first Marvel Studios movie included several scenes of Stark physically suiting up in his initial bulky Iron Man suits, and also struggling to get out of them – in one memorable moment joking that Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) had caught him doing worse things in his workshop. Audiences loved watching Stark get in and out of the Iron Man armor, and subsequent movies found new and interesting ways to accomplish this.
2010’s Iron Man 2 saw Stark suit up in armor that sprung from a briefcase, 2012’s The Avengers suited Iron Man up in a geo-locked suit during his fall from the top floors of Stark Tower, and 2013’s Iron Man 3 saw Stark test his new microchip-locating armor to the tune of “Jingle Bells.” 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron took this one step further by suiting up Iron Man in an even bigger suit of armor, the Hulkbuster, which proved capable of taking on the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) himself. Since then, however, Stark upgraded to using nanotech armor.
Stark’s nanotech Iron Man suits in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame certainly provided a sense of futurism and sleekness, but lost a lot of the magic of these previous, celebrated suit-up scenes. Nanotech provided more ease when suiting up, and provided Stark with more weapons and gadgets than ever before – many of which proved helpful during the fight against Thanos (Josh Brolin). Even so, we can’t wait to see Doctor Doom bring physical armor back to the MCU, especially with Robert Downey Jr. in the driver’s seat, so we’re even more excited for Doomsday now.
Are you excited to see Doctor Doom in his suit of armor in Avengers: Doomsday? Let us know in the comments!
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