Downey: 'Doomsday' Has Antidote to Post-Endgame Letdown
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- Robert Downey Jr. told CBR alongside co-director Joe Russo that "Avengers: Doomsday" "landed in a place that I think will more than suffice," crediting the film's structure and its other characters — not his own performance — as the antidote to a post-"Endgame" dip.
- Joe Russo said the film contains "a lot of surprises" and described it as "the most emotionally complex" and "the most mature" of the Avengers films to date.
- Downey returns to the MCU in the role of the villain Doctor Doom, six years after his Iron Man character exited in 2019's "Avengers: Endgame."
- The MCU's post-"Endgame" track record has been uneven, with hits like "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" alongside flops including "The Marvels" and "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
- "Avengers: Doomsday" opens Dec. 18 from Disney and Marvel Studios, with "Avengers: Secret Wars" positioned as the follow-up capstone of the new saga.
Why it matters: The Russo brothers returning to direct with Downey now recast as villain Doctor Doom rather than hero Iron Man is Marvel's highest-profile creative reset since "Endgame," but the filmmakers offered zero specifics about the structural "antidote" they keep citing. With a Dec. 18 release date locked and a mixed Phase 4-5 track record as the backdrop, the film is being asked to carry both fan expectations and the studio's box-office recovery on hype alone.
