Joe Russo Details How RDJ Pitched His Desire To Play “The Ultimate Villain” In ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

A good amount of folks were under the impression that when Robert Downey Jr. was announced in the role as supervillain Doctor Doom (after inhabiting the beleoved Tony Stark/Iron Man in multiple films) was a giant push by Disney and Marvel Studios to get some gimmick stunt casting for “Avengers: Doomsday” for a quick pivot from a Kang-centric installement (“Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” was scrapped when actor Jonathan Majors was bounced from the MCU stemming from guilty verdict connected to domestic abuse allegations) to another iconic Marvel villain and some less-than-stellar audience reactions from recent MCU theatrical outings.

However, the folks behind “Doomsday” are attempting to push back on that idea by detailing how RDJ ended up pitching himself to play Doom. Co-director Joe Russo has spoken (via Deadline) on how RDJ won them over with his pursuit of playing “the ultimate villain” with Doom after giving Marvel fans “the ultimate hero” with Iron Man, who gives his life to defeat Thanos and his alien army in “Avengers: Endgame.”

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Talking with the outlet on Saturday night at the Sands Film Festival in St Andrews, Scotland, he revealed that the decision to have the actor in the Doom part happened after “a long conversation between Marvel, Kevin Feige, and Robert.”

“Downey started contemplating his return about 2 years ago, maybe 2.5 years ago,” Russo said. “I was at dinner with him in New York, and he had mentioned to me that he was thinking about this, and the concept was for him to play the ultimate villain. He played the ultimate hero, and now he’s going to play the ultimate villain. I thought it was a very clever idea.”

Also, during that chat, Joe adds that it wasn’t until he and brother Anthony Russo linked up with longtime MCU screenwriter Stephen McFeely that the group would eventually come up with a story structure that would allow for Downey Jr. to return to the “Avengers” universe as Doctor Doom. Of course, McFeely and the Russo Brothers’ relationship with RDJ goes back to “Captain America: Civil War.”

From the footage shown at CinemaCon, Marvel is starting to lean into marketing the next film with some “Avengers vs. X-Men” nods in the movie (although, we’re not entirely convinced it will be exact one-to-one to the comic book version), with Shang-Chi and Gambit having a go at each other (after Alan Cummings previously teasing his mutant hero Nightcrawler brawling with Mister Fantastic in the past).

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In the meantime, fans will have to simply be patient (many were upset the CinemaCon footage dropped online) as we suspect that a trailer could arrive around July, given the announcement that Marvel Studios is heading back to Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con this summer and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” coming in that month as well. “Avengers: Doomsday” is still going head-to-head with “Dune: Part 3” this December.