Last summer at the world’s biggest fan convention — San Diego Comic-Con — Marvel Studios took the stage at Hall H and unveiled its mind-blowing announcement — Tony Stark’s actor, Robert Downey Jr. is returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
What should have been an exciting announcement has instead brought me feelings of anger and confusion.
The MCU started all the way back in 2008 with Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man,” starring RDJ as Tony Stark. For over 10 years, he played this iconic character and was the face of the MCU until his final film as the character in “Avengers Endgame” in 2019 when Stark sacrificed himself to save the universe. Since then, RDJ has expanded past the MCU starring in films like the critically acclaimed “Oppenheimer” which won him his first and only Oscar. This brought the actor back into the mainstream once again.
What made the announcement of his return so frustrating for me was not the actor himself, but his casting. Instead of reprising his role as the iconic Stark/Iron Man, in a bizarre turn of events, they casted RDJ as Doctor Doom.
Doctor Doom is the main antagonist to the Fantastic Four — a well respected and cherished Marvel villain. Out of all the characters to cast RDJ as, why Doctor Doom? To have two such pivotal characters played by the same actor is the laziest thing Marvel has done in the past few years, and they have done some pretty lazy stuff. The most confusing bit of all of this is the statement RDJ released when the announcement first came out: “New mask, same task.”
My frustration over this casting goes much further, it goes to how Disney is handling Marvel as a whole. According to Matt Belloni of Puck News, “Marvel Studios” paid RDJ over $100 million for both “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.” This money could instead be going to the hundreds of visual and digital effects artists who pour blood, sweat and tears into these movies.
Not to mention there has been no build up to Doctor Doom within the past movies. In the Infinity Saga, the main villain, Thanos, was slowly hyped up over the span of six years, and when it came for his time to shine, Josh Brolin blew the audiences away. I’m not saying RDJ can’t achieve this praise, but with only three years between the casting announcement and “Avengers: Doomsday’s” release in 2027, I think we should be worried.
If I was in “Marvel Studios’” shoes, I would have stuck to the original plan of having Kang the Conqueror as the main villain in “Avengers: Kang’s Dynasty” before the RDJ casting, but recast Jonathan Majors due to his controversy. By now, Kang could have been a fleshed-out and respected villain that fans would look forward to seeing on the big screen. Sure Kang was flawed before the controversy, but Marvel could have fixed their mistake and made something the fans were sure to remember.
As for the larger question of, is the MCU doomed? I think so.
With the start of James Gunn’s new DC Universe and superhero fatigue being more prevalent than ever, I think we’re reaching the end of the MCU. Superhero movies will not be leaving any time soon but I believe we are moving away from the MCU and into the age of the DCU, beginning a new era for the action movie genre.
