Avengers: Doomsday premieres in six months' time, marking the return of characters like Thor, Captain America, Steve Rogers, and The Fantastic Four. As the title suggests, Doomsday also features the MCU debut of one of the most iconic villains in Marvel Comics — Doctor Doom.
The character had previously appeared in three Fantastic Four films, but now, Doom has a bigger role (and is more powerful) than ever before. Robert Downey Jr. will play the villain, who will be a threat not only to the MCU universe, but the entirety of the multiverse as well.
A lot is riding on Avengers: Doomsday for Marvel Studios. The MCU has had an up and down few years since Avengers: Endgame, with highs like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool and Wolverine being canceled out by The Marvels and Captain America: Brave New World.
As a result of those (relative) failures, the MCU now needs a hit more than ever, and the reception to Doctor Doom as a villain is at the heart of that. Interestingly, Avengers: Infinity War, and the character of Thanos, may end up holding the key to a well-liked portrayal of Doom, with Josh Brolin’s antagonist taking center stage in the 2018 film.
The success of Avengers: Infinity War as a film and Thanos as a villain are intertwined. If Thanos didn’t resonate with audiences, then chances are that the broader film around him wouldn’t have either. Conversely, if Infinity War was a well-liked movie with a weak villain, as was the case in many early MCU films, then it's unlikely that it would reached the levels of success that it did.
That’s why it was so important to get Thanos right, and the same sort of pressure is on for Doctor Doom. A big reason why Thanos was as good of a villain as he was in Infinity War is because the movie spends enough time with him to the point where audiences understand him and his motivations. That’s why the “was Thanos right?” question circulated among fans after the film’s release, as even though he was a villain, his reasoning seemed relatively well-intentioned, even if he was misguided overall.
Thanos being the main character helped Infinity War in so many ways, and one of which was perfecting the balance of all the heroes present. Infinity War was the first time that the entirety of the MCU came together, from the Guardians of the Galaxy cosmic corner of the universe to the more grounded Earth heroes. Everyone was linked at long last, but with that many characters, the Russo brothers risked the story lacking a focal point.
Rather than inserting Iron Man or Captain America, they opted for Thanos, which helped the film greatly. Another way it helped was with originality, as Infinity War felt fresh and new as a result of a new character at the center of the story. Infinity War needed that level of uniqueness, especially as heroes like Iron Man and Captain America had been around for so long at that point.
As stated, Thanos taking center stage helped tie the entirety of Avengers: Infinity War together. The film had a cohesive, flowing narrative as a result, which is hard to do in any superhero movie, let alone one with as many characters as Infinity War had. Thanos was the link for all the heroes, meaning that even if some teams weren’t actively interacting with one another, they were still working towards the same goal.
Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were prime examples of this. The two heroes led their own respective teams in Infinity War, but they never actually meet each other; their reunion was saved for Avengers: Endgame. In Infinity War, Stark and Rogers were disconnected, and because of this, the story risked feeling disjointed as a result.
However, it ultimately felt the opposite, and that’s because of Thanos. He was the centerpiece, making sure that Tony and Steve’s respective stories were both progressing towards the same place, even if they didn’t cross each other’s paths.
The MCU has always been a franchise that thrives on connectivity, and Infinity War exemplifies that more than any other. However, the interconnectivity means very little if the story it’s all built up to doesn’t feel narratively focused, and Thanos is the one that makes that happen for the third Avengers movie.
Avengers: Doomsday faces many of the same potential difficulties that Infinity War did, but arguably on an even bigger scale. Doomsday is once again tying the whole MCU together, but this time around, it’s not just this universe that comes into play. Every Marvel universe is a part of this multiversal story, as the looming threat of Doctor Doom poses danger to all realities.
This means even more characters present as a result of the universes colliding. Some of these are the old Fox X-Men characters, many of whom made their debut in the first X-Men movie over 25 years ago. Characters like Cyclops, Mystique, Professor X, and Magneto are all making their returns, meaning that the story of Doomsday needs to find a natural way to include them.
Even on Earth, there are many heroes that will need to be balanced. Much like in Infinity War, there isn’t exactly an established Avengers team, and instead there are different groups, such as the New Avengers (aka the Thunderbolts) and Sam Wilson’s “official” Avengers team. The heroes are split up, which will undoubtedly play in Doctor Doom’s favor. At the same time, it may also pose a danger to Doomsday’s story overall.
That’s exactly where Doom comes in. Just like Thanos, he can link these different facets of heroes together by being the anchor point for the story overall. There’s also the added benefit of Robert Downey Jr. playing Doom, as he’s an actor who resonates greatly with MCU fans and will immediately command their attention.
Doctor Doom as the main character of Doomsday also means added originality to the story as well. He’s brand new to the MCU, meaning that the Russo brothers have a blank slate with which to work, and have many options for where they want to take Doom as a character. With that, it helps Avengers: Doomsday, and the MCU overall, feel fresh and with plenty of forward momentum overall.
