In 2019, during Avengers: Endgame’s epic climactic battle, millions of movie fans mourned when Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark snapped his fingers to defeat Thanos at the cost of his own life. It ended an 11-year run for the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that saw the actor make 10 appearances (including cameos). However, the actor revealed himself as the MCU’s Doctor Doom at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2025. While excitement did abound at the prospect, and while RDJ is indeed monumentally talented, some fans questioned his suitability to play the iconic villain and saw the casting as a cash-grab by Marvel Studios. However, his past roles prove he’s perfect for the role.
Since his 1970 acting debut as a mere four-year-old child in his father’s movie Pound, Robert Downey Jr has appeared in over 80 films, playing a wide array of roles and demonstrating superb range. Those roles have included several where he’s shown all the attributes and traits required to nail the role of Doctor Doom in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. RDJ will reportedly first appear as Doom in the post-credits scene of 2025’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps before playing meatier parts as the character in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars. It’s time to look at the past roles that specifically showcase his ability to play a brilliant MCU version of Victor Von Doom.
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Tony Stark In The Marvel Cinematic Universe
The role gives him vast familiarity with superhero movies, the MCU, and the experience of playing a charismatic narcissist with technological genius.
In many ways, Victor Von Doom and Tony Stark are similar. They’re both powerful billionaires and divisive leaders with vast expertise in technology who wear advanced suits of armor full of amazing gadgets. Personality-wise, they’re incredibly charismatic, inspiring, and narcissistic. Robert Downey Jr utterly nailed those traits for 11 years in the MCU (giving him vital experience in and familiarity with the franchise). Moreover, if this version of Doom turns out to be an evil alternate version of Stark, all RDJ will need to do is throw in a bit of venom to a role he played for over a decade.
Sherlock Holmes In The Sherlock Holmes Movies
The iconic detective is a cunning genius with a flair for theatrics and the dramatic.
Such is the level of cunning, calculating, obsessive genius possessed by the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes — something he shares with Victor Von Doom — that it would be tremendous to see him facing off with the iconic Marvel villain in a battle of wits. Holmes also has a flair for theatrics comparable to Doom. RDJ energetically conveyed those characteristics superbly in Guy Ritchie’s 2009 Sherlock Holmes offering and its 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Seeing him doing the same with a more nefarious character will be great.
Kirk Lazarus In Tropic Thunder
If ever there was proof RDJ can deep dive into a role, it’s this.
Getting into character as someone as imposing and different from RDJ’s real-life self as Doctor Doom will require a deep dive by the actor. If ever there was proof that he’s capable of executing a deep dive, it’s when he played Kirk Lazarus in 2008’s Tropic Thunder. The actor’s controversial role as Lazarus — an Australian method actor and five-time Oscar winner who underwent “pigmentation alteration” surgery to darken his skin to portray a black character (Staff Sergeant Lincoln Osiris) — proved he could play complex, over-the-top characters with a warped sense of identity. This performance earned RDJ his second Oscar nomination — his first for Best Supporting Actor — though he lost out to Heath Ledger for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight.
Charlie Chaplin In Chaplin
This Oscar-nominated performance showed RDJ has the required physicality and emotional depth to play Doctor Doom.
For his performance as Charlie Chaplin, the legend of Hollywood’s Silent Era of movies, in 1992’s Chaplin, Robert Downey Jr. received his first Academy Award nomination (and his only one to date for Best Actor). That was hardly surprising (though he ultimately lost out to Al Pacino for his role in Scent of a Woman), as he displayed brilliant physicality, impeccably mimicking the movements of Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” character. That will be important when playing a masked character like Doctor Doom. But the role also required real emotional depth, conveying charm, insecurities, pathos, and loneliness. Those attributes will also be needed to play Doom, as the character has many personal troubles (such as hating the way he is beneath his mask and doubting himself as a worthy son and lover).
Lewis Strauss In Oppenheimer
RDJ’s Oscar-winning performance shows he can brilliantly play someone who’s calculatingly menacing and vengeful.
Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t often play the bad guy, but he unequivocally proved he can do so with his career-best performance as Lewis Strauss in 2023’s Oppenheimer. Strauss was initially a supporter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, but that changed when the theoretical physicist started pushing for nuclear restraint and voicing concerns about the atomic bomb. He became vengeful and petty, trying to frame him as a communist sympathizer (his hatred towards Oppenheimer was reminiscent of Victor Von Doom’s feelings about Reed Richards) — something RDJ did so well that it won him his only Academy Award, as he beat the likes of Robert De Niro, Ryan Gosling, Sterling K. Brown, and Mark Ruffalo to the Best Supporting Actor gong.
Considering all of that, there’s a pretty convincing argument that Robert Downey Jr. will make a great Doctor Doom in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Assuming he does first appear as the character in the post-credits scene of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, fans will get their first feel for his portrayal on July 25, 2025.
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Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt, Tom Hiddleston, Iman Vellani