Victor Von… Downey?

What is Marvel’s current strategy with the Multiverse Saga?

It was a rather momentous occasion yesterday when, during the Marvel Studios panel at San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that Anthony and Joe Russo, the directors of four of the company’s biggest hits (including the two most recent Avengers movies), would be returning to helm Avengers: Secret Wars, scheduled for May 2027, and its predecessor, scheduled for May 2026 and now known as Avengers: Doomsday.

Initially subtitled The Kang Dynasty, the first of the two upcoming films was to have featured Kang the Conqueror and his interdimensional variants as villains, but legal troubles involving actor Jonathan Majors (who had played the character in previous Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and TV shows) led to his removal from the franchise in late 2023 and the subsequent retooling of the new Avengers two-parter. As had been speculated the fans, the focus will now be on Doctor Doom, one of the powerhouse Marvel villains. And yesterday’s announcement came with the revelation that, in those two movies at least, he will be portrayed by none other than Robert Downey Jr., who previously played Tony Stark/Iron Man in the MCU from 2008 to 2019.