How Can Robert Downey, Jr. Be Doctor Doom? The Shared History Between Doom and Iron Man Explained

This year’s Marvel Studios panel at San Diego Comic-Con may not have been overflowing with new reveals and announcements, but there was one huge shocker to cap off the evening. We learned that Avengers 5 has now become Avengers: Doomsday, and none other than Robert Downey, Jr. has been cast as iconic Marvel villain Doctor Doom.

Marvel fans are still trying to wrap their heads around that announcement. It’s a big deal that arguably Marvel’s biggest and most important villain is finally going to make his MCU debut. But why is he being played by Downey of all people? Is Doom an evil variant of Tony Stark?

We have a lot more questions than answers at this point. But it’s important to remember one thing – Iron Man and Doctor Doom have a long history together in Marvel’s comic book universe. We can only assume this casting will play on that history one way or another. As we grapple with this surprise announcement, let’s break down the relationship between Doom and Iron Man in the comics and how that might play into the MCU’s unusual take on Doctor Doom.

Iron Man and Doctor Doom’s Shared History

Doctor Doom will always be defined by his feud with Mister Fantastic. As the traditional origin story goes, Reed Richards and Victor von Doom were college roommates and intellectual rivals from pretty much the very beginning. Victor was obsessed with building a machine that would allow him to communicate with his dead mother. Reed warned his frenemy that the machine was dangerous, but the arrogant Victor didn’t listen. That stubbornness wound up blowing up in his face – literally – when the machine exploded and scarred Victor’s handsome mug. One soul-searching journey around the world later, Victor von Doom was reborn as Doctor Doom.

Mister Fantastic has certainly remained Doom’s arch-enemy over the years, but the Latverian monarch has also tussled with Iron Man a fair few times. Their rivalry really took shape in a 1981 storyline called Doomquest, where both Tony Stark and Victor von Doom are dragged back in time to the court of King Arthur. Doom attempts to forge an alliance with Morgan le Fay, but they’re no match for the combined might of Iron Man and King Arthur’s knights.

Doom and Iron Man had another major faceoff in 2007’s Mighty Avengers, which is set in the aftermath of the Civil War crossover and Tony Stark’s promotion to Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. After Doom is implicated in an attack on New York City, Iron Man leads the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. in an all-out invasion of Doom’s kingdom of Latveria. Though Doom wasn’t actually responsible for the attack, he winds up in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.

Basically, as one of the only people on the planet smart enough to rival Victor von Doom himself, Tony was always going to wind up on Doom’s s*** list. It’s the same reason Doom and T’Challa have always had such a love/hate relationship. It doesn’t help that Tony is purely a man of science, whereas Doom is all too happy to tap into the power of the supernatural in his never-ending quest for more power. That conflict between technology and magic is what has also made The Mandarin such an enduring Iron Man foe.

But their relationship isn’t always purely antagonistic. Following the events of 2015’s Secret Wars (which ends with Doom being redeemed and getting his old face back), Doom turns over a new leaf. He becomes a supporting character in 2015’s Invincible Iron Man, insisting on lending a helping hand despite Tony refusing to believe that the former Doctor Doom is on the level.

Doom even becomes the new Iron Man for a time after Tony is left in a comatose state due to the events of 2016’s Civil War II. That’s the premise of a series called Infamous Iron Man, as Doom forges his own suit of Iron Man armor and attempts to carry on Tony’s heroic legacy. Doom even defends Stark Industries from an attack by The Hood and his minions, but at the cost of his recently healed face.

It’s also worth pointing out that there are versions of Doctor Doom in the Marvel multiverse who actually are Tony Stark. One of these is Iron Maniac, a version of Tony Stark introduced in 2004’s Marvel Team-Up #3. Another is featured in 2010’s What If? Iron Man: Demon in an Armor #1. In this world, Victor von Doom swapped bodies with Tony Stark in college. Trapped in his rival’s body Tony swears revenge and begins a yearslong quest to destroy Doom’s Stark Universal company.

How Can Robert Downey, Jr. Be Playing Doctor Doom?

At this point, we’ve established that Doctor Doom and Iron Man have a long shared history together in the comics. But that still doesn’t answer the basic question – why is Downey of all people playing Doctor Doom? Why cast the actor who made Iron Man a household name as a completely different Marvel character now?

One possibility is that Downey is simply playing a new MCU role, independent of any connection to Tony Stark. Don’t forget that Doom is well-known for never taking off his mask. Whether because he can’t or simply won’t is part of his mystique. Depending on how over-the-top Downey’s performance is (and there’s plenty of room to go big with a character like Doom), the movies may simply be able to ignore the fact that the guy underneath Doom’s armor looks and sounds an awful lot like Tony Stark. If Downey proved anything with his performances in 1992’s Chaplin and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes movies, it’s that he can really transform himself with the right accent.

And it’s not as if Downey would be the first MCU actor to return in a completely different role. Michelle Yeoh played Aleta Olgord in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and Ying Nan in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. David Dastmalchian played Kurt Goreshter in the first two Ant-Man movies and pivoted to playing Veb in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Gemma Chan played Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel and Sersi in Eternals. There is a precedent for this kind of double-casting.

That said, it seems hard to imagine that Marvel just decided to cast Downey again without intending to reference his history as Tony Stark. Another option is that Doom has been reimagined as a variant of Tony Stark. We know that the newly retitled The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set in an alternate-universe, retro-futuristic version of New York City. Perhaps in this universe, Tony Stark is the one who rooms with Reed Richards in college and develops an unhealthy obsession with besting his rival.

This Tony may undergo some twisted inversion of the origin story seen in 2008’s Iron Man, leaving him disfigured and retreating inside a powerful suit of armor to plot vengeance against the Richards family. Doom may not be the primary antagonist in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (that would be Ralph Ineson’s Galactus), but we have to imagine he’ll appear in the movie in some capacity. Ideally, the FF movie will provide Downey’s new character with an origin story prior to him taking center stage in Avengers: Doomsday.

We also know that the FF are eventually making the jump to the MCU, as they’re now confirmed to be appearing in both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. It’s probably safe to assume that Doom will make the journey with them. Making Doom a refugee from another world would also help explain why the character has yet to appear in any previous MCU project. Like with the FF, the MCU has no Doctor Doom of its own. The Fantastic Four: First Steps can change that.

Whether Downey’s Doom is Victor von Doom or Tony Stark, it may not matter much in the end. This is a villain who’s egomaniacal to an extreme. He hides from the world inside a suit of armor. He combines the most advanced technology his mind can conjure and the darkest spells the supernatural realm has to offer to make himself a god among men. He’s a twisted inversion of everything Iron Man stands for. Where Iron Man was the savior of the MCU, Doom is its greatest nightmare.

That’s why you cast Robert Downey, Jr. as Doctor Doom. It’s a chance for the MCU’s most pivotal actor to play a completely different kind of character, but one who can have an equally profound effect on the future of this universe. We’ve seen Downey at his heroic best. Now it’s time to see just how evil he can be.

For more on Marvel’s SDCC panel, learn what we saw in the Captain America: Brave New World footage and the stunt-heavy Thunderbolts* footage.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.