If Marvel wants to rival Avengers: Infinity War and Thanos with Avengers: Doomsday and Robert Downey Jr."s Doctor Doom, the latter should copy the former"s villain POV trick. Robert Downey Jr. was the first name ever confirmed on Avengers: Doomsday"s cast list, with the shock announcement at 2024"s San Diego Comic-Con panel ratcheting up the excitement for the 2026 film. Since then, more updates about Avengers: Doomsday"s story, cast, and release date have only further increased the hype for the first installment in the series since 2019"s Avengers: Endgame.
Beyond this, though, the most intriguing part about the upcoming Marvel movie remains Robert Downey Jr."s casting as the iconic Marvel villain, Doctor Doom. Many are curious to see whether the gamble of hiring an actor synonymous with an MCU hero like Iron Man as a major villain will pay off, as well as whether the character of Doom will be depicted correctly. To succeed in this and make Avengers: Doomsday"s villain one of the MCU"s best, the film could copy Avengers: Infinity War"s Thanos POV trick, and I am very curious to see if Marvel will do so.
Avengers: Infinity War Made Thanos More Than A Simple Villain Thanos' Mindset Was Conveyed Heavily To The Audience Close Firstly, it is worth exploring the Thanos trick from Avengers: Infinity War. In the comics, Thanos was known as the Mad Titan, who sought out the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half of all life in the universe as a means of appeasing Lady Death, whom he was infatuated with. This motivation has some depth to it but is admittedly too far-fetched to make Thanos" actions believable, sympathetic, and easy to invest in. In Avengers: Infinity War, the MCU changed that by giving Thanos a much more noble motivation.
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Posts The MCU depicted Thanos as someone who had to watch his planet, Titan, be destroyed, along with everyone who lived on it. Thanos predicted this would happen as the planet"s soaring population would lead to environmental issues and the destruction of his race, something that eventually came to pass. Thanos" motivation for The Blip in the MCU was to remove half of all life in the universe so that other planets would not suffer the same fate as Titan.
Thanos was more of a protagonist of Avengers: Infinity War than the likes of Captain America or Iron Man, as proven by the villain receiving the most amount of screen time in the film...
Throughout Avengers: Infinity War, this code of belief was highlighted at several points. In fact, entire scenes were dedicated to Thanos" motivations, making the character a much deeper depiction of his comic book counterpart with more believable, almost sympathetic motivations than the strongest of MCU villains. In many ways, Thanos was more of a protagonist of Avengers: Infinity War than the likes of Captain America or Iron Man, as proven by the villain receiving the most amount of screen time in the film at 29 minutes, over 10 minutes more than the character in second, Gamora.
I Could See Avengers: Doomsday Making RDJ's Doom A Main Character To Make Doom As Successful As Thanos Was Stemming from this, I could easily see Marvel Studios repeating this with RDJ"s Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday. For one, it proved incredibly effective with Avengers: Infinity War, with the film often being considered among the best of the MCU"s many movies and Thanos regarded as the franchise"s best villain. Beyond this obvious benefit of making Doom a main character of Avengers: Doomsday, there is an actor as talented and beloved as Robert Downey Jr. in the role.
Overall, I think it is safe to say that Robert Downey Jr."s casting as Doctor Doom is one of the single most discussed choices in comic book movie history. Marvel knew this would be the impact it had on the wider audience, explaining why such a big moment of it was made at SDCC 2024. With that in mind, I cannot see why Marvel would cast Robert Downey Jr. in the role just to give him a smaller villain role akin to the MCU"s lesser-beloved villains. With RDJ, a main role is all but guaranteed.
There are theories that the first act of Avengers: Doomsday will focus solely on Doom, either killing alternate versions of Thanos or the Council of Kangs, backing up this theory about him being a main character.
Another reason as to why I could see Avengers: Doomsday having its titular villain as a main character is the benefit it would bring to the narrative. The heroes confirmed as part of Avengers: Doomsday"s cast are fairly disparate, be it the Avengers who have little connection to the Thunderbolts, or The Fantastic Four who are from an entirely separate universe. If the film played out from Doom"s perspective, the narrative would have a central focal point, just as Thanos brought to Avengers: Infinity War when there were three different bands of heroes facing off against him and his forces.
Why It Would Be Good For Avengers: Doomsday To Make Doom A Main Character It Would Benefit Not Only The Character But The MCU's Future Beyond Doomsday Custom Image by Grant Hermanns If the studio chooses to make Doom the main character in Avengers: Doomsday and replicate former successes, this would also bring several benefits regarding Doom"s character and his MCU future. Where Doom himself is concerned, Avengers: Doomsday will be his first MCU appearance, discounting any small potential cameo he could have in the story of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Therefore, making him the main character of Avengers: Doomsday would mean his character could be more fleshed out than a typical villain role would allow for, rendering him a more three-dimensional antagonist than a dull, underdeveloped, one-off villain.
Regarding the overall MCU, Doom being the main character of Avengers: Doomsday will benefit the story of Avengers: Secret Wars. The storyline of the latter film will likely follow that of the comic book of the same name, with Doom presiding over Battleworld. Battleworld is a combination of the universes that remained after mass incursions caused the multiverse to collapse, with Doom establishing his dominion over it.
Related Avengers: Secret Wars: Release Date, Plot Details & Everything We Know The culmination of phases 4, 5, and 6 of the MCU will be in Avengers: Secret Wars. Here"s everything to know about the sixth Avengers movie.
Posts Making Doom a sympathetic main character in Avengers: Doomsday who is seeking to create Battleworld to save people, yet placing himself as their ruler, would emulate Thanos" more noble motivations while still keeping him a firm villain. Given that Avengers: Secret Wars will likely explore Battleworld and Doom"s rule more than Avengers: Doomsday, the latter fleshing out the character"s story and motivation would give the former more narrative weight. As a result, Avengers: Doomsday would be improved via Doom"s exploration, as would its sequel.
RDJ's Doom Being The Thanos Of Doomsday Would Create 1 Big Problem For The MCU Linked To The Depiction Of The Avengers Close Despite the many obvious benefits of RDJ"s Doom being the main character of Avengers: Doomsday, there is one problem it creates that Avengers: Infinity War"s Thanos did not. In the latter case, the Avengers of the film were already well-fleshed out. The previous 10 years of movies had solidified the core Avengers across three movies and several standalone films, with the same being said for the Wakandans and Guardians of the Galaxy. This meant that placing a focus on Thanos could be allowed, as the villain needed fleshing out more than the heroes who we already knew would band together.
With the Avengers of Avengers: Doomsday, the same cannot be said. Phases 4 and 5 have lacked the presence of the Avengers completely. As such, the team assembled will have a lot of catching up to do, despite some characters having interacted in the past. There is also a lack of main heroic characters like Captain America and Iron Man, with Sam Wilson having had just as many appearances as a younger hero like Ms. Marvel, for example, in the Multiverse Saga.
With all of this in mind, giving Doom more screen time could be a detriment to the heroes of the Multiverse Saga, given that the previous movies and shows have not established them as a team. Individually, the problem remains too, as some heroes confirmed for the film will only have had one or two MCU appearances by the time Avengers: Doomsday is released. Evidently, Avengers: Doomsday"s script will have to be incredibly tight to avoid these issues and make Doom as a main character work as Thanos did before him.
Like Follow Followed Avengers: Doomsday Superhero Adventure Action Sci-Fi Release Date May 1, 2026 Director Anthony Russo, Joe Russo Writers Stephen McFeely, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee Cast See All Chris Hemsworth Thor Vanessa Kirby Sue Storm / Invisible Woman Joseph Quinn Johnny Storm / Human Torch Ebon Moss-Bachrach Ben Grimm / The Thing
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