Summary

• Robert Downey Jr. will be playing the role of Doctor Doom in the MCU, not a variant of Iron Man or Tony Stark.
• Marvel will introduce RDJ’s Doctor Doom in the movie Fantastic Four: First Steps before Avengers: Doomsday.
• Doctor Doom’s crusade in Avengers: Doomsday will involve killing Anchor Beings to create a new world and become a god. Loki may be forced to help him in this endeavor.

Robert Downey Jr. is back to start his second innings with the MCU, and this time he is not going to play a hero but a villain. This marks a significant shift from his iconic role as Tony Stark, Iron Man. As someone rightly said, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” When the whole thing was announced, the Russo brothers made it very clear that Robert Downey Jr. would not be playing any variant of Iron Man. He is not going to play Tony Stark. He is going to play Victor Von Doom, or Doctor Doom, and they were very specific about it. Robert Downey Jr. will play Doctor Doom and not a variant of Iron Man or Tony Stark.

Due to the scandals surrounding Jonathan Majors, Marvel had no other choice. Therefore, they thought they needed to pivot from Kang’s story, and that pivot was Doctor Doom because they were doing a multiversal thing. There couldn’t have been a better opportunity for them, and that’s why they brought in RDJ as Doctor Doom. But there is a big problem here, and that is Marvel has not yet introduced Doctor Doom into the MCU. How is this finally going to happen?

Marvel won’t directly show a character like Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday. In Infinity War, Marvel introduced Thanos, but they teased Thanos from the first Avengers movie. Marvel will definitely introduce RDJ’s Doctor Doom before Avengers: Doomsday, and this is going to happen in Fantastic Four: First Steps. There is some evidence for this too. For instance, Matt Shakman, who is the director of Fantastic Four, himself said that he has known about RDJ’s casting for quite a long time and that keeping it a secret was a big task for him. This also makes it clear that Marvel had planned this for a long time. After that, they shared this information with the director of Fantastic Four maybe for the same reason—that he could incorporate this into his script. If Matt Shakman knows that RDJ is Doom, only then can he include him in his script.

RDJ’s Doctor Doom surely will not be the main villain of Fantastic Four: First Steps. This is a Fantastic Four story, and we will be introduced to the characters of the Fantastic Four. Galactus will be the main villain of the movie, but at the same time, we will get a little reference to RDJ’s Doom, maybe talk about him, and maybe his look will be revealed in the post-credits. It may also be revealed that Doom was responsible for everything that happened in the movie.

There is also a possibility that RDJ’s Doctor Doom actually does not belong to this universe; he is coming from another universe. In the post-credits scene, RDJ’s Doctor Doom will kill the other Doctor Doom to show his power, and we will realize how strong and powerful this variant of Doom actually is. If you look at it from the point of view of comic books, then Doctor Doom and Reed Richards and the entire Fantastic Four family have quite a deep chemistry, a deep bonding you could say. If Marvel wants to show the same bonding in the MCU, then Doctor Doom has to be from this universe; only then can they establish some history between them. But at the end of Fantastic Four, these people will somehow reach the MCU (Earth-616), which is the sacred timeline. Its most probable reason could be incursion, that thing which is very important for the storyline of Secret Wars and, in fact, the multiversal saga. But for some reason, it has not been shown in the MCU yet.

It may be changed, as in Avengers: Doomsday incursions may happen, from which there might be an incursion of Earth-616 and Earth-10005, where the story of Deadpool & Wolverine takes place. Because of this, Logan, Deadpool, and other mutants will also come to our Earth. It is not possible that there are so many superheroes, it is an Avengers-level event, and they are not divided into teams, so each team will have its own separate mission. Now the question arises: what is that mission? From here, Marvel can follow the story Time Runs Out.

Time Runs Out is heavily focused on incursions, in which we were introduced to what exactly these incursions are. Incursion is nothing but one planet colliding with another planet, and as a result, both planets will be destroyed, or only one planet will survive. But that does not mean that the planet that survived is completely safe. That planet has to survive the incursions of the other incoming planet as well. This will continue until nothing is left in the entire multiverse. As per Reed Richards of Earth-838, “An incursion occurs when the boundary between two universes erodes…and they collide, destroying one…or both…entirely.”

The main plot of Avengers: Doomsday should be incursions, and this will also be RDJ’s Doctor Doom’s own crusade. Like in Infinity War, Thanos had a crusade that he had to collect all the Infinity Stones so that he could snap and wipe out half the population of the universe, and he did that. Similarly, the Russo brothers will provide something to RDJ’s Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, otherwise, how can fans feel that terrifying?

What will be Doctor Doom’s crusade, what things will he collect, what path of destruction will he embark on? One thing makes a lot of sense. In comic books, there is something called Beyonders, and they are responsible for the creation of the entire multiverse. Beyonders put a Molecule Man in every universe, who is completely similar, meaning every universe’s Molecule Man will be exactly the same as another universe’s Molecule Man. The entire load of that universe is on that Molecule Man. If the Molecule Man of a particular universe dies, then the universe will be destroyed.

The Beyonders, just for fun, think, “Let’s do one thing; let’s kill all the Molecule Men in this entire multiverse at once and see what happens.” As soon as Doctor Doom finds out about this whole Molecule Man thing, he starts killing the Molecule Men in different universes, not all at once, but one by one, which is why the Beyonders’ plan fails. They don’t understand what is happening because they wanted to kill all the Molecule Men simultaneously, but now one by one, all are dying, and because of this, the balance of the entire multiverse is disturbed.

Because if one Molecule Man has died, one Earth has been destroyed, one Earth has been destroyed, then because of its butterfly effect, another Earth tries to take its place, and they start to have an incursion. Doctor Doom has caused an incursion by killing one Molecule Man, and because of that one incursion, all the incursions are happening because it is a butterfly effect.

Again, the concept of Molecule Man is not introduced in the MCU. There is no need for it, as Marvel has something better. In Deadpool & Wolverine, Marvel has replaced Molecule Man with Anchor Beings. In this entire multiverse, Molecule Man has been substituted by Anchor Beings because both entities are doing the same job. If Molecule Man dies in comic books, the whole universe will end. Here, if an Anchor Being dies, then the timeline is ending. It is the same thing, just the powers of Molecule Man and those of Anchor Beings are different.

Doctor Doom’s crusade is that he is going to different timelines to kill Anchor Beings. It will not be easy because, first of all, how will he know which universe has which Anchor Being? Here comes TVA; probably it might be that this Doctor Doom is brought on board by TVA for some mission, like Paradox did to Deadpool. That is how he realizes the concept of Anchor Beings, and he will understand that timelines are so volatile, just dependent on one being. Doctor Doom will make plans to destroy all universes by killing Anchor Beings and creating his own new world. There is another possibility, and that is the Council of Kangs.

In Avengers: Doomsday, the issue of Kang will be addressed. Maybe in the first shot of the movie, RDJ’s Doctor Doom visits the Council of Kangs and clears it at once. From there, he understands the whole concept of Anchor Being. Now the question arises: why is he doing all this? What is his motivation?

A very simple reason, which has always been there in comic books, is that he wants to be a god. He wants to be the best; he always comes after Reed Richards, he has always been the second best in the whole world, and now he cannot tolerate it anymore. He has to be the best, and his solution is to create a new world and become a god of it.

The concept of Anchor Being is even more fantastic than Molecule Man because in it we will see many different cameos. Wherever RDJ’s Doctor Doom goes, he will kill every new superhero. Now don’t think that he is going to Tobey Maguire’s Earth and killing him because he is the Anchor Being of his Earth. No, there are many different possibilities. First of all, it is not necessary that his timeline’s Anchor Being is Tobey’s Spiderman. The second thing is that Doctor Doom does not need to kill every single timeline’s Anchor Being. He will just need to kill some selected ones; incursions will happen on their own like a butterfly effect. Here, Marvel can do many different types of cameos without even doing anything. We will just be shown a montage where RDJ’s Doctor Doom is killing many big superheroes, and we also understand how powerful he is, just like Thanos did in Avengers: Infinity Wars.

The Avengers are trying to stop him in multiple teams, but they don’t know how; in fact, they don’t know who he is. Because in comic books when he is doing all these things, his name is not even Doom; he changes his name to Raboo Malal, and that’s why a mystery is created around Raboo Malal. Here, he can do something similar, and the Avengers will not even have an idea that they are chasing their own ghost, who was once their own Earth’s Iron Man.

In the comic books, the more Molecule Man he kills, the stronger he becomes. He starts to absorb their powers because, in the end, he will need this power when all the universes are ending, everywhere incursions are happening, and everything is destroyed. Now there is a need for a new world. Then Doom will create a new world. He cannot do it alone because in comic books when all these incursions happen, the whole world ends, and Doctor Doom creates his own battle world. He does not do this work alone; he needs Molecule Man for this. Here too he will not be able to do this alone, but because MCU has not yet introduced Molecule Man, they have someone better, and that is Loki.

RDJ’s Doctor Doom reaches the end of time and he sees Loki. There is a very interesting parallel between them. If you remember, this is the same Loki who had that conversation with Iron Man at the bar counter in Avengers Tower. They are at it again. Loki is holding all the timelines, but now they are dying one by one. Doom tells him, “I give you another chance; we both can create a new world together.” Loki agrees to his words, maybe he doesn’t, maybe Doom could blackmail him for something, or maybe Doom, after killing so many Anchor Beings, is now more powerful than Loki, so he forces him to create a new world, which is Battleworld.

It sounds very ridiculous but think about it like this: we have been waiting for the meeting of Thor and Loki for a long time. They would meet in Avengers: Doomsday, but no, it doesn’t happen. In Secret Wars, Doctor Doom keeps Loki in his basement because he is powering Battleworld using his power just as Loki is sitting holding those timelines on that chair. Just like that, he is also powering Battleworld, and then Thor finds out in that basement that his brother is still alive and what condition Doom has put him in. Imagine how powerful that moment will be; it has the potential to beat the Wakanda moment of Avengers: Infinity War.

Avengers Doomsday may end on an Infinity War-type moment where the Avengers lose, but if the Russos repeat that moment, it will not make any sense. It will feel like Marvel did the same thing again. What if the Avengers have completely lost, the Avengers have failed, they have got nothing to do? Doctor Strange has already sold his soul, joined the Black Priest, everyone has given up, they have no idea how to stop these incursions, they know nothing, and that’s when a white flash happens. Everyone wakes up in a new world where everyone has a new life, new memories, and a new god, God Emperor Doom.