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News of Robert Downey Jr.’s return to The Avengers as supervillain Doctor Doom has rightfully caused fanfare, raising many questions about the future of the MCU.
In case you missed it (where have you been?), the Iron Man star unmasked himself as the actor who will portray one of Marvel’s biggest villains during a panel at San-Diego Comic-Con, confirming that he’ll return to the fold as Doctor Doom in the Russo Brothers-directed Avengers: Doomsday.
The reveal of both Downey’s return and Avengers: Doomsday — which will premiere in 2026 — has sent fans into a tizzy. Naturally, the return of one of the franchises’ most-loved actors has been met with widespread excitement, though Downey’s previous Marvel credits and his reintroduction into the MCU has is proving divisive.
Among other sentiments, fans have questioned how Downey’s role will work within the broader trajectory of the MCU, criticized his casting as an act of pure fan service, and speculated the decision was to re-earn goodwill following Marvel’s lackluster offerings of late. Much of this confusion has prompted speculation about villain roles in upcoming movies, with many suggesting that future characters will be played by Marvel’s existing pool of famous faces.
If Marvel’s decision to re-cast Downey becomes standard practice, fans think they know who will portray characters like Magneto. While Marvel’s take on X-Men is still in its infancy (we got slithers of how it might unfold in Deadpool & Wolverine), fans have hypothesized that the studio — à la Downey’s return as Doctor Doom — will bring back previous Avengers actors like Chris Evans to play the franchise’s anti-hero.
“This just in: Chris Evans is Magneto,” one fan speculated, with others name-dropping fellow Avengers castmates for other roles. “Can’t wait for Chris Evans as Magneto and Scarlett Johansson as Invisible Woman,” one user quipped. Elsewhere, one fan replied to footage of Downey’s reveal and wrote: “SMH. Next they’re going to tell me Chris Evans is Magneto.”
For the most part, it seems fans aren’t too excited by the prospect of Marvel simply re-casting actors like Evans in new roles, with one person encouraging people to stop mentioning it “before those damn brothers see it and actually make that happen.” One user said it would “be weird” if the studio re-enlisted Evans for a character like Magento, with another adding that the speculation around the role made them “legit wanna bleach my eyes.”
“At this point you have to commit,” one fan wrote in response to Downey’s re-casting. “Chris Evans magneto, [Scarlett] Johansson mystique, Chris Hemsworth apocalypse, Jeremy Renner Kang, and Mark Ruffalo molecule man.”
Of course, it remains to be seen whether Downey’s return signals a casting pattern for future Marvel films or is simply an anomaly, but we might know more when Avengers: Doomsday arrives in 2026.