Marvel just rebalanced the hierarchy of power in the MCU. Leading up to the studio’s big San Diego Comic-Con panel on July 27, everyone had one big question: what was happening with Avengers 5? The movie, originally titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty had been placed in deep freeze ever since Jonathan Majors was found guilty of misdemeanor assault and harassment and promptly fired from his role as Marvel’s next big bad, Kang the Conqueror. So what did that mean for Avengers 5 and it’s follow-up Avengers: Secret Wars? Now, we finally now.
In the final minutes of its Comic-Con panel, Marvel revealed the new directors for Avengers 5 and Secret Wars (the Russo Brothers are indeed back) before dropping an even bigger bombshell: Avengers 5 is now Avengers: Doomsday, starring none other than Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.
The Russo Brothers Return to Marvel for Avengers 5 and 6
It seemed like a natural fit when The Hollywood Reporter named Anthony and Joe Russo as the potential directors of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. The duo already have two Avengers films under their collective belt, and together have made Marvel Studios over a billion dollars. With the franchise in a creative and commercial slump, their return seemed like a no-brainer.
That said, Marvel never outright confirmed that the Russos would return to direct the upcoming Avengers films. Per THR, they were “in talks” to helm the duology, and were among a handful of directors that Marvel was courting. Fortunately, fans haven’t had to wait long for true confirmation from Marvel. The studio returned to Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, and finally shared its plans for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Near the end of a packed panel at Hall H, Marvel reintroduced the Russo Brothers with a highlight reel of their previous MCU work before confirming the news. The Russos are back!
The crowd reacted to the news with a rousing chant. They then stated:
“When we directed Endgame, we truly believed it was the end of the road for us because we put all of our passion, creativity, and love into Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame... In the time since, with a very special story we could see us coming back.”
Robert Downey Jr. and Avengers: Doomsday
If you’re wondering about Avengers: Doomsday, this is Marvel’s official pivot away from Kang the Conqueror after Jonathan Majors was fired. The next Avengers movie (the fifth if you’re counting) will focus on Dr. Doom and star Robert Downey Jr.
“What did I tell you, I like playing complicated characters,” the actor best known for playing Iron Man in the MCU told a shocked crowd of fans.
Beyond the casting news, we know virtually nothing about what it means that RDJ is playing Victor von Doom in the MCU. Is he a variant of Tony Stark? A brand new character? Will we even see his face in this movie? (Doom typically wears a mask to hide his deformed face, but he’s removed it a few times throughout comic book history, once very notably in the original Secret Wars comic.)
It’s worth noting that one version of Kang travels back in time to become Iron Lad, a member of the Young Avengers fashioned after Iron Man. It’s also been suggested in the comics that Kang (who hails from the distant future) is a descendant of both Doom and Reed Richards (aka, Mister Fantastic). So it’s possible that the MCU could try to create some sort of connection between Tony Stark and Dr. Doom, but that seems like a huge stretch — to be honest, I’m struggling to follow the logic of this paragraph even as I write it.
Hopefully, we won’t have to wait that much longer to learn more. At the very least, we should find out how Marvel is handling Doom in the MCU when Fantastic Four premieres on July 25, 2025.
