Anthony Russo's Civil War Comments May Hint at a Tony Stark Return Alongside Doctor Doom

A short comment from Anthony Russo about Captain America: Civil War (2016) may be the first real clue to why Victor von Doom looks like Tony Stark in Avengers: Doomsday. I think it also points to a strong chance that Robert Downey Jr. comes back as Tony Stark, Iron Man, and if not in Doomsday, then in Avengers: Secret Wars.

The remark came in an interview with the Russo brothers on the AGBO Productions YouTube channel, looking back at Civil War. It's flying under the radar, and I'm surprised more people aren't talking about it. For all the details revealed officially or through plot leaks and industry insiders, one big question remains: why does Victor von Doom look like the 616's Tony Stark? If the industry insiders are right, it may not even be answered in Doomsday.

Anthony Russo ties the Tony Stark and Steve Rogers dynamic to Avengers: Doomsday

The excerpt came out of a 30 minute conversation. Anthony Russo described the craft behind Civil War: taking two heroes and making them completely opposed in their objectives, while keeping both relatable and both flawed. He credited Markus and McFeely with the deft work needed to pull that off.

He said it's a testament to the fact that it worked that, 10 years later, both Tony Stark and Steve Rogers remain "very empathetic and rootable." The interviewer then suggested that dynamic is the root of what the Russos are exploring in Doomsday in some regard, even though one of the characters has changed quite a bit.

Anthony Russo agreed. He said the unresolved aspirations and flaws of those characters continue to unfold as the story moves into Doomsday. You can take that any way you want. But they were talking directly about Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. The idea of making characters whose point of view the audience understands could apply to many characters, Thanos at the end of the Infinity Saga for example. Here, though, the subject was those two men, and the interviewer only briefly noted that one of them has changed.

Why Doctor Doom has Tony Stark's face: two theories

If you apply Russo's comment as a lens to who and what Victor von Doom is, I think we may start to see the connection between the two. I've said for some time that there's a clear mutual exclusion between two possibilities. Either Victor von Doom took Tony Stark's identity in order to manipulate the Avengers around him, which I think is more likely, or Tony somehow created Victor von Doom as a variant of himself.

The second option is a lot more tenuous to explain. Still, Tony did have the entire Infinity Gauntlet, with all of the stones, in his hand when he snapped. Who knows what was truly in his heart? Was it only to get rid of Thanos and his army no matter what, or was it also to let himself survive, so that he comes back in the multiverse as a variant who is Doctor Doom? Again, that theory is very weak. It seems more likely that Victor von Doom would want to take Tony Stark's face.

The Russos' promise versus insider reports about Doom's mask

It has been said that he is not a Tony Stark variant; he is Victor von Doom. The Russos have also implied and said multiple times in interviews that they're going to address this, and that it won't be left as an open question.

That runs straight into what industry insiders have said about Doomsday. Apparently Victor von Doom isn't going to reveal his face or take off his mask, at least not to the audience or the other characters in the film. That would mean the question isn't addressed until Avengers: Secret Wars. Something there is incongruent.

"Different mask, same task": Doctor Doom as Tony Stark without heart

Either way, if Doom is an extension of Tony Stark's will, his aspirations and his faults, I think that puts back on the table the idea that Tony Stark has something to do with why Victor von Doom is where he is. Maybe, as an extension of Tony himself, Doom shares the same aspirations, like a suit of armor around the world.

Maybe that's connected to the fact that the only thing Robert Downey Jr. said, other than that he likes playing complicated characters, was "different mask, same task." We don't yet know the exact details of how they'll explain it, but maybe it doesn't have to be that complicated. What this ultimately means from Anthony Russo is that Victor von Doom will have many of the same character flaws and aspirations Tony Stark did. In that, we'll get a look at what Tony Stark, Iron Man may have been if he lacked empathy and lacked heart.

Joe Russo also talked about the tone of the film, in remarks I think were more by the book. He said he hoped it felt like a different story, an episodic story for these characters, and that they went for a tonal shift to serve up something different. He doesn't think audiences are expecting it yet.

Why I think Robert Downey Jr. returns as Iron Man in Secret Wars

If they're taking the theme of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers a step further in this episodic storytelling, with those two as the main characters, I think it goes far beyond Doctor Doom simply showing some of Tony's characteristics. I think we'll see Tony Stark again.

I think part of Robert Downey Jr. knew fans would want Iron Man back, and that the way to do it was to completely subvert expectations by having him play Doctor Doom. In my view, revealing him wasn't meant to be a big twist in the film. That's why it was served up at San Diego Comic-Con, partly to avoid spoilers of his return because that news would have been too big, and partly because it was never going to be the crux of a twist. There's no way they were sitting on that for multiple years.

The bait and switch, as I see it, is this: it's Robert Downey Jr., he's playing Doctor Doom, and the fandom assumes he'll never play Iron Man again. Not so fast. I was certain we wouldn't see his Iron Man in Doomsday itself. But in Secret Wars, when they look to up the ante in the third act, Tony Stark as Iron Man may show up and battle against himself as Doctor Doom.

This has led some to believe that Victor von Doom's true face belongs to a different actor. I don't think Marvel has any plans to do that. But I think it's worth pondering whether Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom is the future of Doom in the MCU, or whether he might stay on as Iron Man and play that role through the rest of the mutant saga.

Avengers: Secret Wars as the reboot, with Iron Man and Captain America through 2032

It looks more and more to me like Avengers: Secret Wars will be the reboot film. Everybody expected the Multiverse Saga to end and then get a soft reboot. I think the reboot is coming in Secret Wars, and that's where we'll get the new X-Men characters and probably others.

If Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man is back for that, maybe the plan, in the context of Kevin Feige's comment about looking to undo some mistakes and things they didn't like about the Multiverse Saga, is to bring back Iron Man and Captain America, the two main characters they got rid of after the Infinity Saga ended. If we're getting a whole other saga, with at least Hugh Jackman's Wolverine sticking around to 2032, the reported end date Marvel has set for the next saga running 2028 to 2032, I see no reason Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans can't stick around through that saga too. That would have seemed impossible, but every new clue seems to imply it.

I truly believe Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars are the final off ramp for returning characters from the pre MCU Marvel universes. Once they reset into what Feige called "singular timelines," that nostalgic farming is done. Some characters will undoubtedly stick around, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine among them. Maybe we'll get Chris Evans back as Captain America going forward. I don't know where that leaves Anthony Mackie for a Captain America 5, but no one would complain if they were both in it, the same way no one would complain about a Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man 4.

I'm not saying this is the course of action. But if it is, I think people will fairly complain that Marvel went back to old stories instead of forging new ground. I disagree. That would make the Multiverse Saga the break they needed from these characters in order to come back to them. With the long term plan relatively short, five or six years from 2028 to 2032, I'm guessing they build toward Dark Phoenix. If you've listened to the X-Men writers and director talk about it, I bet they're going to do it again, for a third time, with some of the same people involved. I think nothing's off the table, and a re-galvanized MCU that may include some old faces might be exactly what it needs. We're about to get all of the X-Men; would you want them without Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk and Thor alongside them?

The risk of turning Iron Man's actor into Doctor Doom

There are risks in all of this. The Russos mentioned in the interview that you have to take big risks to get big payoffs, and there's definitely a big risk in switching your main actor and main character to the main villain.

They could have cast anyone else or done this any other way. They chose to do it this way. Now they've got to serve it up.