Avengers: Doomsday theory: were Doom and Reed MIT roommates?

Robert Downey Jr. and Pedro Pascal spent Halloween together in a couples costume, and I think they accidentally revealed a clue about Avengers: Doomsday. A green MIT sweatshirt Pascal wore suggests that on Earth 828, Reed Richards and Victor von Doom went to MIT together. In other words, they were roommates.

I think Avengers: Doomsday will explain the backstory of these two as college roommates from MIT. That detail could shape Doom's Tony Stark parallel, his envy of Reed, his line about stolen lives, and even the way he collects heroes.

Robert Downey Jr. and Pedro Pascal's Halloween costumes look like a Disney lot marketing stunt

The two actors posted images on their social media accounts of themselves arm in arm in a Halloween couples costume, with Downey dressed as Reed Richards and Pascal dressed as Victor von Doom. One clip showed them walking around outside, and another showed them indoors revealing their costumes. They also posed for pictures with many fans who were trick or treating on Saturday night.

We tried to identify where in Los Angeles this was. It was raining, and it was raining in Los Angeles on Halloween night. It doesn't appear to be a regular neighborhood, but some kind of parking lot. I'm about 80% sure this is the Disney lot in Burbank. There was an afternoon of trick or treating on the Disney Burbank lot on Friday, October 30th, but it wasn't raining yet that night. I'm thinking this might have been a smaller, private friends and family event on the lot on Saturday night. One account that posed with the actors seemed to belong to someone from the LA area who might have been on that kind of invite list, but his LinkedIn says he used to work at Theranos, so I think it's a joke account. I have no idea.

The indoor clip seems to be inside a building I've been in on the Disney lot, and the building behind them in the outdoor photos looks like one on the lot too. The giveaway is the 10 mph speed limit sign. You only see those on studio lots around LA, because cars drive through areas where people are also walking. Downey and Pascal obviously didn't go out in a random LA neighborhood together. This was a studio marketing stunt, and there's no way they'd let them around normies like us for it. All of this tells me it was deliberate.

Pedro Pascal's MIT sweatshirt puts Reed Richards and Doctor Doom on the seal

The most important detail is the sweatshirt Pascal is wearing: a green MIT sweatshirt reading established 1861, like the real college. The problem is that MIT's colors aren't green. They're cardinal red and steel gray. And the seal on it shows Reed Richards and Doctor Doom.

We know the MIT logo on Earth 616 looks like the one in our world, because Flash Thompson wore it when he said "no sleep till Boston." The real seal shows two figures: a scholar representing the mind and knowledge, and a craftsman representing the hand in practice. That reflects MIT's Latin motto, Mens et Manus, or mind and hand.

Here, the Earth 828 MIT seal appears to have been modified to celebrate its two most famous alumni. Reed Richards stands in for the scholar, the mind, and Victor von Doom stands in for the craftsman who is good with his hands. That fits what we've seen from both characters. Reed applied his mind to defeat Galactus. Victor uses his hands for all kinds of things, like swatting away Thor in the Doomsday trailers and, in the post credits stinger attached to Avengers: Endgame Encore, hammering his armor together in a way that echoes Tony Stark.

MIT has deep roots in the MCU, from Tony Stark to Peter Parker

MIT is a significant school in the MCU. Tony Stark attended at age 16 and won awards in robotics for building Dummy, a backstory VisionQuest is expanding on. It was the alma mater where he showed off his BARF technology, which gave us our only look so far at the home I think will become Avengers Mansion, a new location in Doomsday. It's also where Tony announced the grant that Riri Williams would one day take advantage of.

It's also where Peter Parker wanted to go to school. He sacrificed his future and his identity so that MJ and Ned could go there, along with Eugene "Flash" Thompson. Now it sounds like on Earth 828, MIT is where Reed and Victor went together.

It would make sense for the Reed Richards we know to have used the world's leading research institute to become the man he is now. He uses Reed Tech to modernize New York City and to do things like what we saw in the recent baseball trailer: upgrading Ebbets Field and keeping both the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants in the city.

Reed and Victor were college roommates in Marvel comics

The roommate origin is true for Reed and Victor in the comics. At first it wasn't MIT; it was simply called State University. Later stories retconned it to Empire State University, or even MIT.

In the comics, Victor and Reed didn't get along at all as roommates. Victor was jealous of Reed's popularity, and Reed's best friend, Ben Grimm, sabotaged one of Victor's machines, causing an explosion that slightly scarred Victor's face. Originally it wasn't a gnarly scar, but Victor's vanity led him to obsess over it, wear his mask, and hate Reed and Ben forever.

Joe and Anthony Russo have talked about having to use CGI to create intense scarring on Robert Downey Jr.'s face. Based on that, we think the scar in Avengers: Doomsday is going to be more significant.

The D23 Doomsday trailer points to a personal betrayal between Reed and Victor

The Doomsday D23 trailer confirmed that Susan Storm, Reed Richards and Victor von Doom all knew each other before the events of the film. One line in it says: "Victor was always the smartest guy in every room. He used to be different. He used to be kind. He used to be caring. And then everything he loved was taken from him."

Reed then demands, "Victor, did you do this?" That rage would only be there if Reed felt personally betrayed by someone he knew. That's why I think the film will explain their history as college roommates at MIT.

Doom's stolen lives line may be aimed at Reed and Sue

Making MIT Victor's alma mater on Earth 828 would create another connection between Victor of 828 and Tony Stark of Earth 616. Maybe even the way Reed on Earth 828 gets to be the handsome celebrity everyone loves will be another source of envy for Victor. Reed is living the life that Victor's variant in another universe got to live, the life Victor feels he should be living.

That might be the reason Doom says, "All of you have lived stolen lives, but now you must give them back." The trailer editing makes it seem like he's saying it to all of the Avengers. Maybe it's something he says only to Reed and Sue in the movie.

Doctor Doom's collections may be a recruitment pitch, not a kidnapping

MIT envy might also explain how Doom makes his collections. Since seeing Bruce Banner violently collected by Doom in the scene attached to Avengers: Endgame Encore, we've been assuming the collection amounts to kidnapping and brainwashing, and that the people he collects will become his inner circle of trusted warriors.

But what if Doom's recruitment has a better pitch than that? What if he sells Bruce Banner on a world where he doesn't have to be an outcast living two miles underground in fear of the big green guy, or a large man with a huge grocery budget? Maybe he can live in a full Hulk village with the Maestro to hang out with. What if Doom offers Doctor Strange a way to finally heal his hands? What if he offers Wanda Maximoff a world where she can live with her family?

And what if, in Peter Parker, Doom saw the longing of a kid stalking his friends on social media as they live the MIT lives he wishes he could have had?

Spider-Man: Brand New Day's timeline math could tie Peter to Doom

That's why I think Spider-Man: Brand New Day has its weird timeline math. If No Way Home took place in fall and winter 2024, Ned and MJ would have graduated high school in spring 2025 and enrolled at MIT in fall 2025. Graduating four years later puts them in summer 2029, so the movie should be set in fall 2029.

That doesn't line up. Doomsday takes place in late 2028 or early 2029, based on the 14 months later math from Thunderbolts. Thunderbolts has to take place no later than fall 2027, based on its proximity to Captain America: Brave New World, which is definitely set in April 2027.

So the only way it makes sense is if Ned and MJ graduated from MIT in three years, which would allow Brand New Day's post credits scene to show Peter being collected by Doctor Doom and transported to Battleworld in space. I think it has to work out that way for Spider-Man and Hulk to be in the raw emotional states that would let Doom collect them.

Why Doom may call Bruce Banner "Mr. Banner"

This might also answer a question we had about the Bruce Banner collection scene, where Doom says, "Mr. Banner. I have come to collect you." Bruce isn't a mister. He's a doctor, and he teaches at Empire State University.

But maybe Doom, as an MIT alum, disrespects the rival school so much that he refuses to acknowledge the academic achievement of a professor from what he sees as a junk school. Meanwhile, Doctor Strange went to Columbia; he wore a Columbia sweatshirt when the Sanctum Sanctorum was frozen over in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

I don't know. Does all of this Doomsday stuff come down to snobby college rivalries? Or does Doom going to MIT on Earth 828 at least better explain his relationship with Reed Richards, his Tony Stark parallel, and what he really means by stolen lives?