yo what
I’m not deeply familiar with the lore/canon. Is there any instance in the comics that Tony Stark becomes Dr. Doom? If not, is this Marvel getting desperate with their waning popularity by trying to bring back RDJ just to straight up play a different character? That’s a new low.
Dr. Doom has become Iron Man, so there’s that. In this case it might just be same actor two roles. Remember that Doom wears that mask because his face is all fucked up; it’s likely that they could just have RDJ play the role without any Iron Man connections at all.
Update: also there’s this: https://youtu.be/5Jv-HopDBV4?si=052HgQB2WQJhtvRT
Doesn’t seem to me like it would make sense to hire RDJ and then hide him behind a mask for the entire movie.
I’d like to invite you to watch V for vendetta. A good actor can do magic even behind a mask!
Edit: I’m not sure how Downey Jr would perform, just want to point out that a mask alone is not a blocker for a great performance.
I’m not well versed with lore but “What If: Iron Man: Demon in an Armor” has Tony and Victor swap bodies. It happens when they are younger so they have different paths and that story isn’t the one that is going to be told here, but… technically yes.
But also keep in mind it’s fine for the MCU to do things a little different. In Multiverse of Madness we was the “Illuminati” in a way similar to existing material, but still wholly unique. Additionally we got characters like Mordo who get new arcs and growth that differs from any existing media
While I do expect this to be a little desperate on Marvels part, they’re also bringing back the Russo brothers, I think it’s also a way to bring hype back to Marvel and the idea of the multiverse. The future is mutants and Secret Wars will be a great way to get that going so I think we’re going to speedrun it and a cheesy strat like bringing back RDJ is a way to do that.
In terms of story I don’t think they’re going to ignore that he played Tony Stark/Iron Man. If we’re going to play with the Multiverse (and we are) then a variant of Tony is fair game.
