Robert Downey Jr. Doctor Doom Reveal Reminds Us Marvel Protects Its A-Listers
Our first look at Doctor Doom reveals that Marvel's sticking to the comics for its next big bad.
Ever since a green-cloaked figure strode onto the Marvel stage at San Diego Comic-Con and revealed himself to be Robert Downey Jr., fans have been wondering the same thing: “What the heck will the MCU version of Doctor Doom look like?” Well, thanks to a recently leaked piece of promo art, we have our answer. He looks like Doctor Doom.
Thanks to images shared by several online social media feeds, including Avengers Update on the app formerly known as Twitter, we can now say that the MCU will be bringing a faithful version of Doctor Doom to the big screen next year in Avengers: Doomsday.
The MCU Doom wears a mask twisted into a glowering visage, surrounded by a hood attached to his green cloak. Green cloth runs down the sides of the not-so-good doctor’s body, with a harder material on his abdomen, covered with a diamond pattern. Doom’s gauntlets have the same high-tech look, as do the bands running across his arms. However, the purely mechanical armor has been replaced by chainmail. Interestingly, the discs on Doom’s chest now have two different images on them, but, all-in-all, this is classic Doctor Doom.
Of course it’s not like Doom has undergone too many changes since Jack Kirby and Stan Lee debuted the character 1962’s Fantastic Four #5. Kirby gave the character his signature green tunic, his ever-present steel face, and his high-tech body armor. And most creatives who followed knew they could not improve upon it. Sure, Marvel has sometimes changed Doom’s color scheme—most notably considering the upcoming Avengers movie slate, he donned a white version for Secret Wars—and, sure, he sometimes has variations for a particular moment, such as the ghastly new armor he created when devoting himself to sorcery during Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo’s legendary run (seriously, look it up; it’s nasty). But not even John Byrne, who rarely missed a chance to meddle with King Kirby’s work, veered from the classical look.
By following the lead of these classic creators, Marvel reminds us that as much as they’ve been willing to toy around with the backstories and design elements of secondary characters—making Star-Lord the son of Ego the Living Planet instead of J’Son of Spartax, streamlining Carol Danvers’ backstory—Marvel doesn’t mess with their A-listers. In the same way that Spider-Man‘s only undergone minor tweaks to his costume, and that Hugh Jackman was fitted for a classic yellow and blue Wolverine costume as soon as he entered the MCU, the big names get their recognizable looks.
Which, of course, has always been Kevin Feige‘s calling card. Even while working under Avi Arad on 2000s movies such as X-Men and Spider-Man, Feige advocated for comics-accurate versions of the characters to appear onscreen. Which is a good reminder as we look forward to Doomsday.
While the news that Downey would return to the MCU, not as Tony Stark but as the despot of Latveria, certainly excited many MCU fans and casual viewers, it concerned Doom aficionados. Would one of the greatest characters in from the House of Ideas be reduced to a marketing stunt? Would Downey be able to hold his quippy on-screen persona long enough to make Doom work? And, most importantly, would Marvel—who invented a new cinema language to show Stark in the suit—be able to resist unmasking Downey when he’s playing a character who famously and crucially never shows his face?
Will Marvel allow Downey to fully embody Doom and stay in costume? Or will this great design be tossed aside so we can spend two hours looking at RDJ’s handsome mug? We’ll find out next year, when Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters.
Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to release Dec. 18, 2026
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Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!