Robert Downey Jr. Reveals How Kevin Feige Convinced Him to Play Dr. Doom

Robert Downey Jr. has finally explained how his Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) comeback came to be.

The Iron Man actor appeared on Tuesday’s episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s “Awards Chatter” podcast and confirmed that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige convinced him to return to the MCU as the notorious villain Doctor Doom.

Despite his character, Tony Stark, being dead, the 59-year-old actor shared, “Susan [Downey] and I were sitting down with Feige at one point, and he said, ‘It just keeps occurring to me that if you were to come back,’ and Susan was like, ‘Wait, come back as what?’”

Downey Jr. recalled how he and Feige discussed the challenges of a potential return, asking themselves, “How can we not go backwards? How can we not disappoint expectations? How can we continue to beat expectations?”

“And then he brought up Victor Von Doom,” Downey continued. “I looked into this character. Later on, he said, ‘Let’s get Victor Von Doom right.’”

The Sherlock Holmes star explained that things became official after he and Feige met with Bob Iger at the Disney CEO’s home. Downey Jr. had already been planning to meet with Iger to discuss contributing to the company’s parks and location-based entertainment.

“I don’t know how to describe that experience,” Downey Jr. said. “I’ve had a lot of really cool experiences. We go to Iger’s pad, and we sit down. I start saying, ‘I just really want to be…,’ and he goes, ‘I like it.’ He likes it.”

Iger then invited both the Oscar-winning actor and Feige to Disney’s Imagineering Campus, which all but sealed the deal.

“[We] go to the Imagineering Campus, and you want to talk about two guys that are not easy to have their minds blown, let alone at the same time—I can’t say too much about [it], but what is going on there right now is so beyond my expectation of what was possible,” he teased.

Downey Jr. shocked Marvel fans when he revealed his Doctor Doom role at Comic-Con last month.

“New mask, same task,” he said during his big Comic-Con debut. “What can I say, I like playing complicated characters.”

Downey Jr. will be portraying Doctor Doom in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, set to be released in May 2026.