Tony Stark died a hero. However Robert Downey Jr. lived lengthy sufficient to turn out to be a villain.
Downey had seemingly completed his Marvel profession in 2019 when, after taking part in Stark throughout 10 movies, his superhero alter ego Iron Man lastly died combating Thanos in “Avengers: Endgame.”
However on Saturday, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige shocked the group at San Diego Comedian-Con when he introduced Downey’s return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe — this time as Physician Doom, or Victor Von Doom.
Downey, stepping ahead to disclose himself onstage, tore off his masks to screaming cheers from the group.
“New masks, similar job,” he posted of his return.
One in all Marvel’s most infamous supervillains, Physician Doom is slated to seem within the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.”
However many on-line have expressed confusion concerning the casting alternative.
Followers are questioning how precisely the position would work, with some speculating that Downey will play a variant of Physician Doom who’s truly an evil multiverse model of Stark, and others questioning if Downey will merely play the character with no hyperlinks to Iron Man. Dr. Doom wears a face masks, which suggests Downey’s position is anticipated to contain principally voice work.
Even Gwyneth Paltrow, who co-starred as Pepper Potts within the “Iron Man” franchise, shared her shock on Downey’s Instagram put up, commenting, “I don’t get it, are you a baddie now?”
Memes shortly proliferated on-line after the announcement, poking enjoyable at Downey for instantly returning to the MCU after successful the primary Oscar of his decadeslong profession (for “Oppenheimer”).
Some additionally expressed facetious disdain for a way a lot cash Downey should have accepted to return again to Marvel, suspecting a profitable deal.
Many on-line criticized the casting, writing it off as a alternative “completed strictly for fan service” and expressing that they might have most well-liked a contemporary face over a identified MCU star.
Some followers known as the choice a “determined” play by Marvel after disappointing field workplace numbers for latest movies akin to “Captain Marvel” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” a minimum of till “Deadpool & Wolverine” dominated the field workplace this weekend.
Others, nevertheless, stated they have been merely glad to see Downey return, irrespective of the position.
Downey’s new position seems to be changing that of “Unbelievable 4” villain Kang the Conqueror, who additionally grew to become the topic of many memes on Saturday.
Marvel had introduced in 2022 that Kang can be the main target of the subsequent “Avengers film,” which was titled “The Kang Dynasty” earlier than its rebrand into “Doomsday” — because the studio had lower ties with Kang actor Jonathan Majors final 12 months after he was convicted of assaulting and harassing his ex-girlfriend.