The secret to how Robert Downey Jr. is back as Doctor Doom is literally staring us in the face, but Marvel is still trying to mask the truth

Robert Downey Jr. is Doctor Doom. Nope, no matter how many times you say it, it still feels weird. And yet it’s the Thor-honest truth. Marvel’s biggest announcement of the year occurred at Comic-Con when the Iron Man icon was announced to be returning to the MCU, against all the odds, to play the big bad of the next two Avengers movies, 2026’s Doomsday and 2027’s Secret Wars.

Maybe Marvel thought the universal adoration for Downey’s portrayal of Tony Stark would immediately win over the entire fandom, but in true Multiverse Saga form, the truth is that some people passionately detest this unforeseen twist. Surely, the desenters have decried, turning Doctor Doom into an Iron Man variant is doing perhaps the greatest Marvel comic book villain a massive disservice?

Sure, the Russo brothers confirmed Downey would be playing Victor Von Doom, not Tony Stark from Earth-123 or whatever, but that has to be a white lie, right? After all, there’s no way they can show Downey’s very recognizable face in this franchise without establishing his new character as another version of Stark. Right?

Well, that’s true, but the problem with this is that it assumes Downey will be showing off his face in the first place…

Robert Downey Jr.’s role as Doctor Doom might be entirely different from what we’re expecting

Now that Doom is being played in the MCU by one of the most famous faces in the world, there’s one, all-important element of the character that is being entirely forgotten: the guy never, ever takes off his mask. Sure, Julian McMahon’s iteration did in Fox’s Fantastic Four films, but he was also a poor facsimile of the comics creation. And don’t even get me started on the Fant4stic depiction. If Marvel wants to, in any way, do justice to Victor’s spirit from the source material than he will have to keep his metal mask on.

What that means, then, is that despite Downey’s casting, he might never actually appear unmasked on-screen. While his voice is still ultra-recognizable, this would allow for Marvel to somewhat obfuscate the Iron Man connection for both the audience and the Avengers. That way, he could legitimately be portraying a Victor Von Doom who really isn’t a Stark variant. Similar to how Benedict Cumberbatch played both Doctor Strange and Dormammu, even though there was no multiversal link between the two.

One of the biggest surprises about Downey’s MCU return is simply that he would be willing to invest so much more of his time making Avengers movies, now that he’s at the top of his game post-Oscar win. If Doom will remain behind his mask, however, then that means that he could pull a Pedro Pascal — the Fantastic Four star may voice Din Djarin in The Mandalorian, but he’s only occasionally the one in the suit. So Downey’s role in Doomsday and Secret Wars may be mostly a voiceover one.

Of course, casting Downey as Doom and then not have him whipping off his mask to reveal he looks like Iron Man would probably be a wasted opportunity, as surely having the Avengers come up against a villain who looks like the greatest Avenger of them all (sorry, Cap!) is the whole point of his hiring. Even so, the permamask route is the most authentic and logistically ideal way for Marvel to allow Downey to play both Tony Stark and Victor Von Doom without throwing the latter character under the bus.

Just hear me out, what if the truth is… he isn’t Iron Man?