Why I Think the Russos' Avengers: Doomsday TikTok Hints at a Doom and Tony Stark Link

The Russos put out another cryptic tease for Avengers: Doomsday on the social media of AGBO, the production company making the film with Marvel Studios, and I think it pointed at a major connection between Tony Stark and Doctor Doom. I also wondered whether it hinted at something else: a second round of cast announcements that a new Twitter scoopster had said Marvel Studios was preparing.

When the post appeared, everyone was waiting on the first teaser trailer, which was expected the following month. Marvel had not confirmed it. The anticipation came from what industry insiders were saying. The clip itself was loaded with Doomsday imagery, and while it may have been trying to say something on its own terms, I believed it could mean more once you tied it to the casting report.

The AGBO TikTok paired a cracked Doctor Doom mask with a Tony Stark mask

AGBO shared the clip to TikTok. It shows two girls lip syncing a mashup of two songs, one of them a classic built around the line "what's going on." One girl wears a Doctor Doom mask that has a noticeable crack in it. The other wears a Tony Stark mask. They each lip sync their part of the mashup, and the caption reads, "No, really, what's going on?"

Past the two masks, the background holds more Doomsday material. There is the same suit Robert Downey Jr. wore when Marvel announced him as Doctor Doom, a costume for Sue Storm, and something that is more or less a costume for Franklin Richards. I spent far too long staring at every frame to make sure there was no hidden Easter egg or big reveal. Aside from the occasional AGBO logo, there was nothing else to find. Everything related to Doomsday is plainly in frame.

So it comes down to the song, Iron Man and Doctor Doom, and what you make of them. I took two things from it.

I didn't buy the leak that Kang rewrote Doom into Tony Stark

The first point, which everyone was talking about, is the tease of a major connection between Tony Stark and Doctor Doom. That connection had already become a point of contention between industry insiders after a major plot leak surfaced. The leak claimed Kang is the reason Doom looks like Tony Stark.

According to that leak, Doom was far too dangerous compared with the other Kang variants he was warring against, so Kang rewrote Doom into Tony Stark, turning a villain into a hero in the sacred timeline as protection against himself. Then Loki blew everything open, destroyed the loom and put things on a different course. With Tony Stark's death, the leak said, Doom was able to resurrect.

I do not believe Marvel will reference Kang in any way. When people started picking that leak apart, I agreed that I didn't think it was the answer. However, I do believe there will be a reason the two characters are connected.

Why I don't think the lookalike can be a coincidence

The industry insiders who said the plot leak wasn't real insisted that the resemblance won't be a big deal. In their view, it will simply be two variants from across the multiverse that happen to look like the same person. Their comparison is the original Johnny Storm from the Fox Fantastic Four universe looking like Steve Rogers from the 616. Both are played by Chris Evans, yet they are not variants of the same character. They are two different characters who happen to look exactly alike.

That may be the explanation for why Victor Von Doom and Tony Stark both look like Robert Downey Jr. But in my view, "you do not jump through the hoops of making this actor both characters unless there's a major connection between them."

So while I don't believe it will be Kang rewriting Doom into Tony Stark, or that Kang will be mentioned at all, I do believe there is a major reason they are connected. The Russos have more or less promised it will be explained in Avengers: Doomsday, and it can't be a simple coincidence where Victor Von Doom notices the resemblance and uses it to his advantage. On one level, this TikTok seems to tease, or even confirm, that there is a big connection between the two.

The clip may have been a precursor to a second casting announcement

The second point is one I wasn't hearing anyone else make. A brand new Twitter scoopster had indicated that a second round of Doomsday cast announcements was coming, and that Marvel Studios was preparing for it at that moment. I wondered whether this TikTok, asking what is really going on, was a precursor to that, a sign they were getting ready for another big moment for Avengers: Doomsday.

Maybe that is wishful thinking. But after doing this for nearly a decade, it's the proximity of the reports that I find interesting. First, industry insiders say Marvel is preparing a casting announcement. Then a post appears asking what is really going on. My answer, if the theory holds, is that they're preparing to blow our minds once again.

The Russos know every post is free marketing

To be fair, and to pull the drama back quite a bit, the Russos know that everything they post about Avengers: Doomsday is free marketing and free clicks, because everybody is so invested at this point. There's a history of fans going over everything they post. It costs them zero dollars to keep doing it, and I would suspect they keep posting even after major reveals. It's free for them and it brings major traffic.

Doomsday and Secret Wars are still going to be their two biggest coproductions by a mile, even with all the other productions AGBO has done, some of them successful. The company has only existed since the wake of Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame anyway. They made a great deal of money and founded their own production studio. Good for them. That's what you do.

I'm reminding myself as much as anyone that not every post between now and Doomsday, or between Doomsday and Secret Wars, will carry a reveal. They know we know. Everything they post will get broken down, so they may be posting for the buzz itself rather than to leave breadcrumbs. Sometimes there may be nothing there to find.

WandaVision's Quicksilver fakeout set a weird precedent

Since I'm already playing devil's advocate, it's worth admitting that Marvel Studios set up a strange precedent for building anticipation around a huge connection and then letting us down, starting with the very first project of the Multiverse Saga. In WandaVision, Evan Peters showed up as a version of Wanda's brother. He had played Quicksilver in the X-Men universe, and he zoomed around the living room.

Then Marvel Studios pulled the rug out from under us by revealing the character was a man named Ralph, and never went back to explain it. There may still be an explanation coming someday, but a lot of time has passed.

So for every Twitter scoopster or theory saying Victor Von Doom simply looks like Tony Stark and uses it to his advantage, with nothing tying our Tony Stark's sacrifice to the lookalike, my answer is the same. I don't believe Marvel Studios will make that mistake twice with so much on the line. There were no stakes to the Quicksilver fakeout. We were a little let down and confused, but it didn't ruin anything. If Avengers: Doomsday explains this away as two people who happen to look alike, that would feel like a major letdown, empty of the reason any of this happened in the first place.

The Russos came back only once they had a story

If you listen carefully to what the Russos have said, they only activated the team and came back because they figured out a story. Robert Downey Jr. spent a year insisting they return to direct the film, or else he wouldn't be in it. They didn't agree because they didn't have a story to move forward with.

Do you really think the story they finally settled on, one compelling enough to bring them back, has Victor Von Doom looking like Tony Stark with no explanation? There is no way. In the same way that I don't think Kang will be mentioned, I don't think they will make the lookalikes a coincidence.

Without knowing whether this post was truly hinting at another casting announcement, and knowing that their social media posts don't always hold breadcrumbs or major Easter eggs, I still think it was teasing a major connection between the two characters. I can't wait to see what that connection is, and whether any theorist or scoopster got it right, because I'm not sure we've heard one airtight enough that everyone accepts it as the definitive reason.