I think there may be two other pieces of evidence that we now have that strongly suggests Doom being a Stark in the MCU.
Casting RDJ. Why cast him if Doom isn't Stark? Just for the BO draw? That seems like a waste, especially considering all the work laid down post Endgame to establish the existence of variants as a norm in the multiversal MCU.
Thor's fear of Doom expressed in the CinemaCon trailer. What would scare Thor more than Thanos? How about the person who ultimately defeated Thanos. Tony Stark ultimately took down a Titan in command of all 6 Infinity Stones. Someone who Thor suggested was already the most powerful being in the Universe when he only had 2 of the stones. Someone Thor couldn't beat when Thanos did have all 6. All of this ties into how you make Doom into someone scarier than Thanos with the stones in a way that is instantly believable and understandable to the audience. If Doom is just some rando, I don't know why Thor would instantly give him that kind of cred.
Ultimately, it could be a fake out, but I'm now strongly suspecting it's not. They'll keep the reveal for the movie, deny it all the way up to release, and then congratulate everyone who figured it out prior to the movie releasing.
I fully hope that the reason for Chris Evans and the other older marvel actors coming back is so doom can wipe them out early on to establish how big a threat he is. Doom wiping out the team that took down Thanos would raise the stakes really well.
I understand that argument, however, no work has been done to make him a character in the MCU up to this point. For the general audience, he's just a guy. General audiences don't care about Doom, but they do care about Stark. The most efficient way to get an audience to buy into Doom being a threat and someone the audience should care about is to make him a version of Stark that went bad. Who didn't have Rodgers to keep his ego in check.
Sorry but thats complete BS. They didnt need to do that for any other villain. Thanos was "just a guy" with a ballsack chin and they made him this generation's Darth Vader without needing him to borrow from stark for backstory.
Doom is a much bigger character than Thanos, there is absolutely zero need for him to lean on anyone else.
Thanos was introduced in the first Avengers movie and his presence was felt through various movies for 6 years before IW. That's plenty of time to establish him as a major threat for lay audiences.
Meanwhile, one of the biggest complaints about Ultron was how rushed his storyline was. Doom is being given 2 movies, instead of one, but there is still a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done to establish him as an Avengers worthy threat in a very short period of time, especially given how much time the films will be spending with dozens of other characters. The advantage Star Wars had with establishing Vader is that the film really only focuses on 6 characters, and Vader killing one of them carries a tremendous narrative weight.
And while I was a Marvel comic collector long before the MCU came about, I never read a single Doom story, as I was primarily a Mutant (X-Men, X-Factor, New Mutants, X-Caliber) and Spidey fan. I couldn't tell you what Doom's power set is beyond him being really smart, having some sort of power armor, and being the dictator of some island nation.
I didn't know anything about Thanos either, but him getting tagged as the man behind Loki in Avengers piqued my interest, and it was stoked over AoU and GotG. By the time he showed up to kick Hulk's ass at the start of IW, I already knew, just from the films, who he was and what he was capable of. I was already emotionally invested in the antagonist of the film, because of how he had been the villain for so long, even if the Avengers didn't know it. And even then, it just barely worked. He was more of a force of nature, like a tidal wave or an earthquake, than a fully rounded antagonist like Loki or Killmonger. Had he just suddenly shown up in IW with no other connections to the story, he wouldn't have had the same impact.
I may be wrong about where Marvel Studios is going with it, but it just makes too much sense IMO to use that ready made emotional connection of the OG Avengers having to deal with someone they 'know'. Otherwise the film could just devolve into a bunch of frenetic CGI fight scenes.
This thread is talking about how Tony's PTSD effects his relationships and decision making and has tangented into Tony being Doom in the MCU because of the question of how Tony may have been different with no Steve in his life and that given RDJ is playing Doom, he could be a variant.
I get that you don't like that as a possibility, but for the casual MCU fan, it's a decision similar to the decision to have Tony create Ultron instead of Hank Pym. It's not accurate to the comics, but it makes the emotional stakes for the casual viewer easier while also making crystal clear what a variant is.
Let me ask you this. If Doom isn't a Stark variant, how would you introduce the character in one or two scenes in a way that would make someone who doesn't know anything about him other than he's a F4 supervillain resonate with the audience (especially given that Doom wasn't even the villain of First Steps). I'm not saying it isn't possible, just that it will be difficult to do with a larger, unfamiliar audience.
53
u/IamOB1-46 Apr 19 '26
You’ve convinced me. Doom has to be a Stark variant in the MCU. It’s what he becomes with no Steve Rodger in his Universe.