Robert Downey Jr set to return to the MCU as Doctor Doom

It’s San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) time and you all know what that means: geek news! Over the weekend, Marvel Studios gave us some news on their upcoming slate, including Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four, and the two new Avenger films.

Here are some of the things we learned…

Thunderbolts

Out next May, Thunderbolts is an irreverent team-up movie featuring depressed assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) alongside the MCU’s least anticipated band of misfits.

The movie stars Geraldine Viswanathan, Lewis Pullman, Hannah John-Kamen, Olga Kurylenko and Wyatt Russell and will bring back a bunch of MCU veterans including, of course, Pugh as Yelena, alongside, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sebastian Stan and David Harbour who played Red Guardian in Black Widow and who returns to the role in this new movie in a new outfit (see below), which Harbour showed off at the Comic-Con.

David Harbour is back as Red Guardian – and he has a new suit!

Thunderbolts will be released in cinemas on 2 May 2025

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

It was revealed at SDCC that the new Fantastic Four movie will officially be called The Fantastic Four: First Steps and it will definitely be set in the 60s, which was hinted at when the movie’s poster was released back in February.

Marvel Studios’ president Kevin Feige was at the event and revealed that the movie starts production this week and that it will see Galactus and Silver Surfer target Earth for destruction. It stars Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/Thing.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be in cinemas on 25 July 2025

Avengers

The Russo Brothers will be directing the two upcoming Avenger movies.

Feige also revealed at SDCC that Anthony and Joe Russo (directors of Avengers: Endgame,Avengers: Infinity War, Captain America: Civil War, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier) are set to return to Marvel Studios to helm Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027 and Avengers: Doomsday in 2026.

In regards to the latter movie, the directors revealed that none other than Robert Downy Jr is set to return to the MCU but not as Tony Stark/Iron Man but as villain Doctor Doom (aka Victor Von Doom).

Doctor Doom was originally introduced to the world in a 1962 issue of The Fantastic Four. He’s a genius scientist and the adversary of the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards. In the comics, Von Doom is scarred after a machine he invents explodes, leading him to wear a mask and suit of armor. The character has been seen on screen before, first by Julian McMahon in the 2005 Fantastic Four movie and then by Toby Kebbell in the 2015 reboot.

“Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made,” the Russo Brothers said at the convention. “We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves.”

The Russo’s company AGBO is set to produce both Avenger films alongside Marvel Studios. Stephen McFeely, known for his work on the Captain America trilogy and Avengers: Endgame, will handle the script.

Currently, AGBO is in post-production on Netflix’s The Electric State, directed by the Russos and featuring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, based on the acclaimed graphic novel.

Avengers: Secret Wars will be released in cinemas on May 2027 and Avengers: Doomsday will be out in May 2026.