Robert Downey Jr. is still Marvel’s Man in the Iron Mask — just not as Tony Stark/Iron Man. “New mask, same task,” Downey said during Marvel Studios’ San Diego Comic-Con presentation in Hall H, where the Iron Man star shockingly unmasked himself on stage as the MCU Doctor Doom. The Oppenheimer Oscar winner will play a multiverse version of the Fantastic Four’s arch-enemy in the newly-retitled Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, which will be helmed by Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame directing duo Anthony and Joe Russo in their return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige unveiled the new title treatments (below) for the fifth Avengers film (formerly titled The Kang Dynasty) and its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars. The two films remain dated for May 2026 and May 2027 and will cap off the Multiverse Saga and Phase 6 of the MCU.
The Russo brothers directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019) — once the highest-grossing film of all time with a box office of $2.8 billion.
“That four-movie run was incredible, and it left us creatively spentwith all our emotions on the floor,” Anthony Russo told the packed 6,500-seat Hall H. “In the time since,through a very special story, Joe and I have come to potentially see aroad forward with you all.”
Plot details are being locked away on Battleworld, but the next phase-ending Avengers movies will draw inspiration from Jonathan Hickman’s 2015 multiverse-spanning Secret Wars storyline that saw Victor Von Doom rule all reality as God Emperor Doom after alternate dimensions collided during universe-destroying incursions.
The Fantastic Four — Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Susan Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) — are also confirmed for a crossover with Earth’s mightiest heroes in Doomsday and Secret Wars.
The Downey-fronted Avengers: Doomsday marks the actor’s first Marvel movie since 2019’s Endgame, which ended with his Tony Stark sacrificing himself to save the universe. Last month, Downey said he’s “become surprisingly open-minded to the idea” of returning to the MCU after portraying Iron Man across 10 movies between 2008 and 2019. “It’s just crazily in my DNA. Probably the most like-me character I’ve ever played, even though he’s way cooler than I am,” Downey said of Stark.
Marvel Studios’ upcoming film slate includes Captain America: Brave New World (February 14th, 2025), Thunderbolts* (May 5th, 2025), The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25th, 2025), Blade (November 7th, 2025), Avengers: Doomsday (May 1st, 2026), and Avengers: Secret Wars (May 7th, 2027).
Stay tuned to ComicBook.com’s Comic-Con hub for the latest news and updates out of SDCC 2024.
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Image Credit: Marvel Comics -
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
