Robert Downey Jr. Officially Addresses the Pressure of His MCU Return, And His Take On Doctor Doom - MCE Notices | California State Portal

It began – like so many things from Marvel Studios do – on the Hall H stage at San Diego Comic-Con. Kevin Feige paced the stage like a carnival barker, juicing the crowd as he shuffled through the all-star casts of Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, who were about to board a plane to London to begin shooting their MCU debut.

Feige wasn’t rushing. But he had a destination in his sights. A two-headed surprise he was about to unleash on the SDCC 2024 audience, which he knew would generate the kind of publicity tsunami Marvel loved to create at the annual convention.

“You want to hear about the two Avengers films,” Feige asked the crowd before introducing surprise number one: Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo planned to return to the Marvel universe to helm the fifth and sixth Avengers films in the MCU. They teased their plans to finally adapt the Secret Wars comics series into a feature film. And they stressed the importance of having a lead-in film that would prepare audiences for the epic story contained in Secret Wars.

Then the brothers dropped the second bombshell: They were bringing Robert Downey Jr. back to the MCU. This time, however, he’d assume the new (and complex) role of Doctor Doom.

Fans had so many questions. To be fair, fans still have so many questions, though some answers have surfaced since the Avengers: Doomsday announcement in 2024. Doom appeared briefly in the closing moments of Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four, connecting his introduction to the alternate MCU universe of Earth-828. Chris Evans confirmed he also would return to the MCU as Steve Rogers. And the 20th Century Fox X-Men heroes have been front and center in the minimal promotional footage that Marvel and Disney have released.

In the lead up to the December release of Avengers: Doomsday, CBR has been lucky enough to walk with Joe and Anthony Russo through their MCU accomplishments, reminding fans of the spectacle, and the emotional payoff, that comes with their Marvel blockbusters. We started with Captain America: Civil War:

And we recently continued our ongoing conversation with a lengthy conversation between Joe Russo and Robert Downey Jr., diving into all things Avengers: Infinity War. In the process, the duo revealed a few major things about the movie that reunites them in the MCU.

‘You’re Only As Good As Your Bad Guy’

It was during our conversation about Captain America: Civil War that I called out to the Russo Brothers how the chemistry shared between Downey and Evans gets overlooked. When Marvel fans single out Civil War, they discuss the introductions of Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), or the eye-popping spectacle of the German airport battle.

But the movie doesn’t work if Downey and Evans can’t sell their sides of the volatile argument that’s tearing the Avengers apart.

CBR recently traveled to London to speak with Robert Downey Jr. and Joe Russo about Avengers: Infinity War and their MCU journey.

Addressing the conflict at the heart of Civil War, Downey told CBR:

I’m so glad you brought this up, because what these films always sought to do is divide, create a dialogue, and contain one’s capacity to do that in a place that – because it’s not real world – you actually get to practice being open to differences in opinion.

The MCU icon continued to connect the dots between the work he’d done with the Russo Brothers and their current film, Avengers: Doomsday, when he elaborated:

I think Doomsday, more than any (film) so far… just because I’ve now realized our tendency to be telling the story of the world while hiding behind the fact that, ‘No, we’re just telling superhero movies that you can enjoy!’ But you’re only as good as your bad guy, tying Doomsday to Infinity War specifically. And again, the one thing everybody could rally around (in Infinity War) is, ‘You’re going to have to contend with Brolin.’

There’s no arguing that Avengers: Infinity War is Thanos’ movie. The entire mission that’s central to the blockbuster – the retrieval of all six Infinity Stones – is driven by Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his Black Order. And the Avengers play catch up the entire movie, running nearly two steps behind the Mad Titan until they very end… when they ultimately lose.

If only Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) kept his cool while Tony and Peter Parker (Tom Holland) wrestled the Gauntlet off Thanos’ hand. If only Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) had successfully obliterated her true love, Vision (Paul Bettany).

If only Thor (Chris Hemsworth) had gone for the head.

As our Infinity War conversation continued, I asked Downey if he learned anything specific about the importance of a villain that he’s taking with him to Avengers: Doomsday, and his portrayal of Victor Von Doom. He replied, “I’m quite odd in that I try to stay as removed from a subjective experience of things as I can. So I try to think like the brothers. I try to feel like I’m in the writing room. I try to feel all that stuff. But eventually, there are so many big shoes to step into that I just have to go, ‘What hasn’t been done as well as it can be done yet?’ We’re always looking for that opportunity.

And a lot of it has been… there’s some experimentation. We’ve had our moments of, ‘Let’s shift here.’ But we landed in a place that I think will more than suffice. And it’s not even about how I executed it. It’s about the way it’s been structured, and the other characters. There’s something going on in Doomsday and forward that is literally the only antidote to, ‘How do you not have these films be let down after an Infinity War and an Endgame?’ And boy, have we labored long and hard to bring that down.”

Downey’s Doomsday director Joe Russo chimed in, confirming that the one-two punch of Doomsday and Secret Wars have “obviously been harder than the other ones, for that reason. The stakes keep going up. But, emotional complexity is always the answer. You bring emotional complexity to anything, and it enriches it. It makes it a fuller experience for the audience. It surprises you.

There are a lot of surprises in this,” Russo continued. “And I think (Doomsday is) the most emotionally complex of all of them. And in a lot of ways, the most mature of all of them.”

Screenshot 2026-06-11 at 3.49.25 PM — RDJ and Joe Russo talking Infinity War

‘One Epic At A Time’

The focus of the interview with Downey and Russo is supposed to be about Avengers: Infinity War – a herculean effort that, I’d argue, should not be able to exist, given the sheer amount of logistical maneuvering that needs to occur both on screen and off to make a movie of this size happen. Russo brings up a conversation he had with Steven Soderbergh at a recent dinner party, where the renowned director of The Limey, Traffic, Out of Sight, multiple Ocean’s films and more asked what it’s really like to helm a massive Marvel movie.

“I sat for a minute,” Russo remembered. “I was trying to think of the snarky, funny response, because he’s got a great sense of humor. And I just said, ‘They’re really fucking hard.’”

But you can’t dig deeply into one of these MCU movies with Downey and not stretch as far back as Iron Man, or dare to look ahead to his anticipated return.

“There’s an incredible amount of gratitude we have going into these two,” Downey reflects when bringing up this year’s Avengers: Doomsday and next year’s Avengers: Secret Wars. “One epic at a time. Doomsday… just the gratitude to be able to do it. To still be engaging with people who are critical when we fall short, but who understand how difficult it is when we get it right.”

“And be there to celebrate with us,” Russo continues. “It’s part of the fun of making these movies. You asked me, ‘What’s the best thing (about) making these films?’ Sitting in a movie theater on opening night and watching the fans go absolutely crazy. You’re trying to deliver an experience to people in a complicated world where they’re going to just have an experience together as a community. They’re going to talk about it. They’re going to want to watch it again. They’re going to want to talk about it with their friends, with their family, with their kids, their grandkids. Something that has a legacy emotional impact on them.”

The Russo Brothers confirmed during a separate interview in London that was part of the SXSW London experience that their MCU journey will conclude (again) with 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars. They have a story they want to tell across these two movies, and they see closure happening once Secret Wars ends. Marvel Studios will go on, as projects with the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and more have been discussed. But the Russos seem ready to pass the baton one more time.

Just, not yet.

“We’ve been very fortunate enough as collaborators, Robert and I, to be able to do this over and over again,” Russo told CBR. “And, knock on wood, we can do it two more times.”

Downey can hardly contain his excitement for what this creative duo is about to unleash as he concludes:

“I just want to say too, and part of that also is, the whole landscape has changed. And I think the way we even talk about the legacy of these films. Our ambition moving forward is to really zero in on the people that we want to connect with, and then let it come out from there. Disney is the best at the symphonic effect of bringing attention to something. But I think we’ve got to go right back to the beginning. It’s almost back to Iron Man. ‘In case you haven’t heard about us, we want you to get excited!’”

Avengers: Doomsday opens in theaters on December 18, 2026.