Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom Won’t Be a Tony Stark Variant

Robert Downey Jr.‘s return to the MCU as Doctor Doom shocked nearly everyone, and in a recent interview, the actor seemed to confirm that he wouldn’t be playing any special variant of the character.

What did Robert Downey Jr. say about returning as Doctor Doom?

Speaking during an appearance on a recent episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Downey recalled the path that led him to coming back as one of the most iconic villains in Marvel history. According to Downey, he and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige often spoke, but one particular conversation saw Feige bring up Downey’s return as someone other than Tony Stark.

“How can we not go backwards? How can we not disappoint expectations? How can we continue to beat expectations?” Downey said. “And he brought up Victor Von Doom. I looked into this character. Later on, he goes, ‘Let’s get Victor Von Doom right.”

The specific mention of Victor Von Doom seems to shoot down many of the rumors swirling around how Downey will return to the MCU. Ever since his reveal, fans were quick to theorize that this version of Doom could be a potential variant of Tony Stark, but that seems to not be the case by Downey’s words.

Avengers: Doomsday does not have an official release date as of yet, although Marvel Studios has said the film is coming in May 2026. It was previously dated a year prior for May 2, 2025, but joined a lengthy list of Marvel delays as many movies saw rewrites and were impacted by the entertainment industry strikes throughout 2023.

The film was previously named Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, but has since been renamed following the firing of Jonathan Majors last year. While the plot of the film is unclear, the film will all but certainly focus entirely around Doom, one of the most iconic and well-known villains in comic book history.