{"id":45650,"date":"2026-04-19T08:19:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T00:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=45650"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:19:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T00:19:36","slug":"kevin-feige-on-casting-robert-downey-jr-in-avengers-doomsday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=45650","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Feige on Casting Robert Downey Jr. in Avengers: Doomsday"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Marvel Studios mastermind Kevin Feige has opened up about the decision to bring Robert Downey Jr. back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as Victor Von Doom, saying the multiverse allowed them to do “whatever the heck we want.”<\/p>\n

The comic book movie bigwig spoke about the Iron Man star\u2019s history with Marvel during a conversation with Entertainment Weekly<\/u> at CinemaCon 2026. The choice to see Downey suit up as the main villain<\/u> for Avengers: Doomsday<\/u> is one that MCU fans are still coming to terms with<\/u>, but Feige said much of it comes down to Downey\u2019s talent as an actor, his already close ties to Marvel, and the power of the multiverse.<\/p>\n

Downey helped light the fire that is now a six-phase cinematic universe when he starred as Tony Stark in the original Iron Man movie in 2008, and it wasn\u2019t until 2019’s Avengers: Endgame that he would retire. An 11-year relationship with Marvel apparently isn\u2019t the kind of thing so easily left behind, as Feige says Marvel Studios “never lost touch with Downey.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“He is ingrained in the fabric of the MCU for obvious reasons,\u201d he said, \u201cand we would talk about when and how and if there could be a return.”<\/p>\n

Some of these conversations took place around the time Downey was preparing to deliver an Oscar-winning performance<\/u> in Christopher Nolan\u2019s Oppenheimer. It was a role that seems to have helped reignite the working relationship between the Iron Man veteran and Marvel, as Feige recalls, \u201cwe thought, ‘This could be it. Let’s do it.'”<\/p>\n

“It’s our universe. It’s a multiverse. We can do whatever the heck we want,” he added. “He played the most iconic hero. Let’s have him play the most iconic villain.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It seems the importance of the bombshell move wasn\u2019t lost on the Marvel Studios crew. Joe and Anthony Russo, the MCU-directing duo that has returned to helm Doomsday and its Avengers: Secret Wars<\/u> follow-up, tease that this new take on Doctor Doom that Downey is set to portray is one who could forever alter the Marvel universe.<\/p>\n

“Certainly with Doom, it’s the problem in the extreme in that his power is so immense and so beyond,” Anthony Russo told Entertainment Weekly. “But that really liberates us all on a creative level, artistic level, to figure out where the complexities and the vulnerabilities are in the character.<\/p>\n

“They may have seemingly unlimited physical power, but there is something inside them where they are vulnerable, where they are exposed, where [there are] places that they need to protect even more intently than their physical selves. So I think the real fun of the storytelling is in that zone there.”<\/p>\n