Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom Is the Villain Avengers: Secret Wars Needs

Marvel fans are still reeling from the news that Robert Downey, Jr. has been cast as Doctor Doom in the MCU. We’re all still trying to wrap our heads around the question of how the man who made Iron Man a household name can now be playing arguably Marvel’s biggest supervillain. Whatever the eventual explanation, one thing is abundantly clear - Avengers: Secret Wars now has the villain it needed all along. To explain why, let’s take a step back to explore Doom’s importance to the Secret Wars saga and why Marvel really needed him front-and-center if they were going to pull off an adaptation of the venerated source material.Marvel will release Avengers: Doomsday on May 1, 2026 and Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7, 2027.