EMERGENCY PODCAST! Robert Downey Jr. Returning to Marvel for Next 2 Avengers Movies as Villain Doctor Doom

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to an emergency episode of Movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I am recording this on Sunday, July twenty eighth. The news broke last night that Robert Downey Junior is returning to the MCU. He is gonna play the Fantastic Four villain Doctor Doom in the newly titled Avengers movie Avengers Doomsday, which is coming out on May twenty, twenty sixth. They also announced Avenger's Secret Wars, which is coming out in May twenty twenty seven. This is all because they are having to shift their plans after they lost and got rid of Jonathan Majors, who was gonna be the next big villain. They were, you know, teeing up King the Conqueror, and now that is no more with good reason. We'll get into all those details, but the big deal here is that Robert Downey Junior is back, not as Iron Man, but as Doctor Doom. And I have so many conflicting feelings, and the nerd side of me is kind of losing my mind because I'm a huge Robert Downey Junior fan. He did a fantastic job as Ironman. Carried the MCU is the reason it was so successful. But that is the nerd side of me speaking. The film enthusiast side of me is saying, what is done is done. They should let Tony Stark, Robert Downey Junior rest and move on. But I think that's hard to do because without Jonathan Majors and everything that we're banking on, they're in a tough position. And I want to start with the announcement last night because I thought it was epic, and I think my initial feelings are based on if I was in that room at Comic Con and I was sitting there, I would feel overwhelming excitement. And this is the moment where the Russo Brothers were talking about introducing Doctor Doom. They didn't say who was playing him yet, but then you see this person walk onto the stage with the Doctor Doom mask, which is this silver, metallic, big looking mask dressed in green, and then you see him take his mask off and it's revealed that it's Robert Downey Junior. So I put myself into the position if I was there at Comic Con, how would I feel in this moment? And I would be much like those people losing my mind because if you see Robert Downey Junior up there. You're gonna get excited. You're not gonna be like all the nerds on the internet right now saying this is terrible dat you lenden brist decision Marvel has ever made. The people saying that are the same people who said that Marvel was cooked after.

00:02:29
Speaker 2: Twenty nineteen an endgame.

00:02:31
Speaker 1: These are also the same people who have still gone to every single Marvel movie just to complain about it. So I can see it from that end, I could see if you were gonna say that this was a cash grab, I don't think it is that. If this were a cash grab, they would have introduced Robert Downey Junior returning as iron Man and iron Man for or him just coming back into an Avenger and with all the multiverse stuff which gets a little bit muddy here and there. They could have got away with it, but they didn't do that. They're bringing them back as a villain.

00:03:03
Speaker 2: So I think it is interesting.

00:03:04
Speaker 1: I'm still hesitant about it, but overall I am excited and I like it. The big tagline that Robert Downeys Junior told the audience from the stage is new mask, same task, which I think is gonna be the real indication of what his character is going to you know, his motives are going to be in the comic books, in the Fantastic Four film franchise, which has been historically bad. It just hasn't been good in my opinion, which I'll get into a little bit about why I'm worried about this, But I think that is the interesting part. New mask, same task, meaning that he is no longer going to be wearing the Iron Man mask slash suit, but the same task remains. What is that task? And I started thinking about that. What was Iron Man really trying to do? He was trying to protect the world. If you go back to Age of Voltron and his motives in that movie, he kind of went kind of Avengers backs, trying to save the world. Yeah, so trying to do good, but in turn created Oldtron, which ended up causing so much death and destruction that you could convince me in that movie Iron Man was a little bit of a villain looking at him battling Captain America over having different feelings on how the Avengers should be regulated. So in Civil War they fought against each other. Again, you could be on Iron Man's side, you could be on Captain America's side. I'm more on the side of Iron Man, just because Captain America is a little bit too much of a boy scout for me. So I tend to side with Ironman's motives, but I don't think he's right one hundred percent of the time. You could have a little fringe of evil in him. So I'm wondering how they're going to introduce him, and if it's new mask, same task, he could still be trying to save the world, but maybe something just flips in him and suddenly he is a villain, because maybe he's going a little bit too extreme. Even looking at Thanos, who has been the greatest villain in the MCU, he has also had if you look at it from a different perspective, maybe he was doing the right thing.

00:05:15
Speaker 2: So maybe they introduce him.

00:05:17
Speaker 1: I don't think they could bring him back as Ironman in any capacity where he flips to doctor Doom, but maybe something in that realm of him wanting to do good at some point and then just going full heel and becoming doctor Doom. I'm excited to see how it's all going to play out. The other thing that is exciting is that the Russo Brothers are returning who have really been the driving force in the MCU for the movies that we all love, going all the way back to Captain America Winter Soldier in twenty fourteen, Captain America's Civil War in twenty sixteen, Avengers Infinity War in twenty eighteen, and they also directed Avengers Endgame in twenty nineteen. Since then, they've had add some success, put out some good decent movies, even Cherry with Tom holland The Gray Man, but I don't really think they've had a big monster hit outside of the MCU. So I really think Marvel is in a place where they want the hits, and they're coming off a historic weekend with Deadpool and Wolverine making two hundred and five million dollars at the US box office, which is great, but I still don't think that movie is enough to propel this next sphase forward. They need something bigger, They need something that packs a little bit more of a punch, and I think that punch is Robert Danney Junior teaming up with the Russo Brothers again and with them doing two Avengers movies within two years again, Doomsday coming out in twenty twenty six and Secret Wars coming out in twenty twenty seven. I'm seeing this again as how we got Infinity War going right into endgame, maybe even doing it the same way where they film all these movies at the same time, so is feel very cohesive and at the end of the day, as much as US nerds and MCU fans want to think that all these movies are just being made directly for us, which I think, they try to put.

00:07:12
Speaker 2: A lot of what we love.

00:07:14
Speaker 1: The characters that we're familiar with, and I think that's probably due to a lot of the criticism of people saying that the MCU is over it's because we don't have as many familiar faces. But then when they bring back a familiar face, we're like, no, we don't want that either. And at the end of the day, they are in the business of making money, and not just a little money. They don't just want to clear ten twenty million dollars. They want to make movies that make billions of dollars. So I think you go back to that bread and Butter Robert Downey Junior and the Russo brothers to do that. So I have no reason to be so hesitant or skeptical.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: Of the Russo Brothers. When you just look at.

00:07:55
Speaker 1: The movies I mentioned, they haven't made a bad Marvel movie. Why would I I think now that they would forget how to make these movies and turn out a turd?

00:08:04
Speaker 2: And why is this all happening?

00:08:06
Speaker 1: Well, Jonathan Major's was being cued up to be that next big villain, that big thanos threat that the MCU always needs. He got into some trouble. A New York jury found Jonathan Major's guilty of harassment and assault on a former girlfriend, which caused Marvel to cut ties with him. And I was growing to like Kang. I think they did kind of a bad job introducing him in Loki, and then in one of the most lackluster Marvel movies, ant Man three, where he's supposed to be this next big threat, got to you know, tee up for the next Avengers movies, and then it was just kind of like, oh, this is our big villain. So maybe it ended up being a blessing in disguise that that didn't pan out and they got to move on to something bigger, because if they would have just recast King the Conqueror or shifted to another villain, even if it was Doctor Doom, but somebody else playing him. That wouldn't have had that big of an impact. Announcing it at Comic Con it would have been okay, cool, because even with Hugh Jackman returning his Wolverine and making a lot of money over the weekend, I don't think that would be enough to propel this next phase of the MCU. You need something bigger. And while Robert Downey Jr. Is still down to make these movies not be Iron Man anymore, I think you take him while he's still at that age where it still makes sense, and I think he is down for it because he has made between four hundred and four hundred and thirty five million dollars with all of his appearances in Ironman movies and Avengers movies and Spider Man movies, So almost half a billion dollars that Robert Downey Junior has made and well earned. He has essentially been the foundation of this entire film franchise. But now I'll get into what worries me. I think the fact that that it is relying so heavily on the Fantastic four movie, which is coming out next year. They announced that Comic Con that the Fantastic four are going to be a part of these next two Avengers movies. Historically, they have not been good movies, going back to the films of the two thousands, which are incredibly cheeseball. And people were so excited about Fantastic Four. I wasn't really buying into the hype because they've never been my favorite group of superheroes. I know how important and impactful they were to Marvel as a whole when it comes to the comics, have some of the best selling comics of all time, and we're really the foundation early on in Marble, and that is why they have had so many stabs at making good movies, because Okay, these are known, beloved characters, but for some reason just doesn't translate on screen.

00:10:53
Speaker 2: Why do I think that is? I think their.

00:10:56
Speaker 1: Superpowers are a little bit corny. They've worked in the comic books, especially way back when Marvel was just starting out, but as a whole watching that on screen isn't that exciting. They had the failed Fantastic four movie back in nineteen ninety four that gave us this classic line from the thingnn man, We're all gonna go get some help. That's what we're excited about. And then Julian McMahon played Victor von Doom aka Doctor Doom in two thousand and five, and I didn't really want any more of Doctor Doom, even though he is a great villain. I'm currently reading the new Doom comic book run at Marvel right now, and that's fantastic. But there's a big difference in something working in a comic book than working on the big screen. They tried it again in the twenty tens, which also gave us this horrendous line from the twenty fifteen movie where they come up with the name Fantastic four right at the very end. Come along way since the garage got to say it's fantastic say that again.

00:12:09
Speaker 2: It's fantastic, Yes it is, guys, I got it.

00:12:14
Speaker 1: Ready, and then it shows Fantastic four. So the only real hesitation I have is that the success of these Avengers movies are going to rely on the success of the Fantastic Four franchise. They did announce the title at Comic Con, the Fantastic Four First Steps. It's supposed to take place in the sixties, so maybe that will change the tone of this movie, because they can't do the same thing over and over again that they have been doing and hasn't worked. So it also makes me wonder where the Avengers movies are going to take place. Are they going to take place back in the sixties.

00:12:52
Speaker 2: Secret Wars, the.

00:12:53
Speaker 1: Comic book series came out in the eighties in nineteen eighty four, which is my favorite limited run series.

00:13:00
Speaker 2: He's in Marvel.

00:13:01
Speaker 1: I have two of the comics, issue one on this wall in this studio and Secret Wars eight that has the Black sym Spider Man on my wall because I love this series so much, and out of these two Avengers movies, that is the one that I'm the most excited about. But man, it comes out in twenty twenty seven, that is so long. So in Secret Wars, there's this all powerful being known as the Beyonder who takes all of Marvel's superheroes to a planet called battle World, and they all are forced to fight against each other. You have the X Men as one team, you have the Avengers as another team. You also have the Fantastic Four, so they are all kind of randomly transported here and then through all these mixed messages are pitted against each other, which is a great story. Initially, before this news was announced. Kevin Figi was saying that there would be sixty plus characters in the next Avengers movie, so it is going to be a big task to take on. So I think that's also why they are bringing the Russo Brothers back, because they did that with Endgame, having to make one of the biggest fight scenes of all time with so many characters, So you want to get somebody with that experience to pull it off again. And I think from that story, the thing I'm the most excited about is the black symbiote Spider Man being introduced in the MCU. If you can bring Tom Holland back, oh man, that is gonna be so good. So I feel like there is a lot to be excited about. Once people get over the fact that Robert Downey Junior is back, He's not Iron Man. And I can already hear the argument of people saying that I can't think of anything new anymore. We just bringing back the same characters. I think that's fine because those people are still gonna go watch the movie and they're still gonna hate it.

00:14:51
Speaker 2: There's no pleasing those people anymore.

00:14:54
Speaker 1: The thing I have to think about is that I feel that Marvel is still making movies for or the same Marvel fan from back in two thousand and eight. It's gonna be different in the next decade after these Avengers movies. It's gonna be more on the run that Star Wars is doing. That they really don't care about the original fans from the seventies and eighties. They are focused so much now on just making new fans. Whenever that happens, then maybe they even they flip me and I will be a fan of these Marvel movies anymore. But I think that they're still trying to encapsulate that energy they created with the Infinity saga, but bring it into the Multiverse saga. I also think that this is kind of the culture that we harbored. We have become accustomed to being excited by cameos, being excited by.

00:15:48
Speaker 2: Actors coming back.

00:15:49
Speaker 1: We've bought into the Multiverse, which is kind of a double edged sword.

00:15:54
Speaker 2: As much as I liked.

00:15:55
Speaker 1: It in no way home now it kind of gives them the ability to do anything and just say, hey, it's the multimers. So we as fans have put our money there saying that we do want to see that, and they're going to chase that money and do more things that bring us back into the theater to watch something like that. So I wasn't upset about No Way Home. I can't really be upset about them.

00:16:20
Speaker 2: Bringing back Robert Downey Jr.

00:16:21
Speaker 1: Now five years is a little soon, so I think that's why they decided to bring them back as a villain and not the same character.

00:16:28
Speaker 2: So those are my thoughts.

00:16:30
Speaker 1: I wanted to do this emergency podcast because I did an entire Marvel episode coming out on Monday, July twenty ninth, and didn't want that to just not make sense that I didn't address this whatsoever. So that'll be up tomorrow. I'll be giving my mount rushmore of Marvel movies and heroes and villains. I'll also give my spoiler free review of Deadpool and Wolverine. So until next time, go out and watch good movies, and I will talk to you later.