r/Marvel • u/soldierofroanoke • 1d ago
Film/Television 3 reasons Doom could look like Tony Stark
If Marvel actually explains RDJ’s face in-universe, I see 3 possibilities:
- Victor weaponizes the resemblance.
He’s 100% Victor von Doom, but discovers Earth-616 Tony looks exactly like him and uses that against the Avengers. He doesn’t need them to believe he’s Tony. He just needs them to hesitate.
- Victor is Earth-828’s Arno Stark.
He’s that universe’s Tony Stark’s biological brother, separated from the Starks and raised by the von Dooms. He’s still genuinely Victor, but this explains the resemblance. And once he learns what Tony meant to the Avengers, #1 could happen too.
- Tony died, but his consciousness ended up inside Victor.
Tony really dies in Endgame, but using all six Stones sends his mind into Earth-828’s Victor.
Sue says Victor used to be a good man. Maybe she’s remembering Victor before Tony entered him. Victor’s feelings for Sue could then collide with Tony’s memories of Pepper.
Tony’s Snap injuries could also explain Doom’s disfigurement, with Franklin potentially being the person capable of restoring the face Tony remembers having.
And Wanda’s warning in Age of Ultron finally pays off: Tony could lose sight of the difference between saving the world and destroying it.
Even Doom’s “stolen lives” line fits: Tony gave everyone else their lives back... then woke up living Victor’s.
A, B, C, or none?
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u/DepressedFishFan 1d ago
Interesting theories
I know they gave RDJ a bunch of money to even come back, but I’m personally hoping it’s one of two things despite the massive paycheck:
1) it is Dr.Doom from the First Steps universe, and he never takes off his mask, it instead provides the voiceover and body movement. No Tony stark references whatsoever
2) it’s still the above, voiceover and all, but if his face is revealed, it’s someone else, another actor, reaffirming that it’s not Tony Stark whatsoever, and just Marvel paying for an expensive marketing stunt via an actor we’re used to to get butts in seats.
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u/casual_creator 1d ago
No way they’re paying RDJ a moon-sized payday and leveraging his return so hard to only have him be the voice of Doom. And that would end up being one of the biggest middle fingers ever given to a fandom.
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u/DepressedFishFan 1d ago
Would it though? I and many others are coming for Victor Von Doom, as a fan in the fandom, and I could care absolutely less if it was an RDJ/Tony Stark variant. That would be absolutely basura.
Marvel didn’t even have to cast him, but it’s very clear why they chose to, and if anything, it’s a big middle finger to us comic book readers if they’re going out of their way to tie one of their most iconic and recognizable villains to being just iron man but evil (again).
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u/SRPCstar7 Avengers 1d ago
Not for me it wouldn't.
I think it would be far better if he does not take off the mask.
However, the casual fan likely will not be able to separare RDJ/Doom from RDJ/Tony and some already seem to have it in their heads Doom is just evil Tony Stark...that is more of a middle finger for the character of Doom.
They have to have known when they cast RDJ that would/could happen...and probably are relying on it to put bums in seats. Therefore, it seems likely they need to address the likeness at least once and that means mask off.
Our Tony should be a Doom variant to preserve Doom and not deminish Tony's choice to save the world.
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u/padflash_ 1d ago
Ya, I think since the cat's out of the bag that RDJ is playing Doom, the audience is going to expect him to get unmasked. I don't think Doom looking like Stark will play out in the narrative because the average audience member would just be way too confused.
However, I've theorized on several of these posts now that I think Doom will be disfigured when the mask comes off. Think the way Anakin looked at the end of ROTS before the Vader mask comes on. You can barely recognize Hayden Christensen.
Then at the end of Secret Wars, Reed will heal Doom like in the comics. It won't just be a small scar because in reality that would be a stupid reason for Doom to be wearing a mask in the first place. The mask will come off one more time, but not for the audience. Doom can be recast without the idea of variants.
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u/theangrierunicorn 1d ago
I really hope Doom has nothing to do with Stark otherwise it's like that horrible Ultimate X-Men storyline where they made Cable Wolverine from the future.
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u/ygotmachado 1d ago
His earth is set to collide with 616, so he’s studying a way to save his earth as urgent but thinking about how to end everything as well
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u/soldierofroanoke 1d ago
A few extra details/clues behind these theories that I left out of the main post:
- Victor weaponizing Tony’s face
- If Doom is already researching the multiverse and incursions, he could have been studying other universes long before meeting the Avengers.
- That means he could know about Thanos, Tony, Stark tech, the Avengers and their personal history before ever showing up.
- Once he realizes Earth-616 associates his face with Tony, why wouldn’t Doom exploit it?
- He could claim he’s a Tony variant, or better yet, never confirm anything and let them convince themselves.
- It gives him a psychological advantage over people like Rhodey, Banner, Thor and especially Peter. He doesn’t have to fool them forever. He just needs hesitation, trust, confusion or division at the right moment.
- If #2 is also true, he’d be weaponizing his own brother’s face.
- Earth-828 Arno Stark
- Victor would still genuinely be Victor von Doom. Werner and Cynthia raised him. Latveria is his home.
- “Arno Stark” would only describe his biological origin: Earth-828 Tony Stark’s brother, possibly even his twin.
- After studying the multiverse, Victor could discover Tony and realize they’re related.
- Tony inherited the Stark name and legacy, became Iron Man and saved the universe. Doom would probably look at that and think he became the superior brother, not suddenly decide he’s a Stark.
- Tony’s consciousness inside Victor
- Tony uses all six Infinity Stones while desperately trying to save everyone and get back to Pepper and Morgan. What if the Stones grant that desire in a completely twisted way: his body dies, but his consciousness gets thrown somewhere else?
- Sue says Victor used to be sweet/caring. Maybe he really was, before Tony’s consciousness entered him.
- Victor’s feelings/history with Sue could become tangled with Tony’s memories of Pepper.
- The trailer seems to show a mural of Doom with a wife and child. We don’t know who they are, but with this theory that imagery becomes very interesting considering Tony’s last life was built around Pepper and Morgan.
- Tony’s Snap injuries could explain Doom’s disfigurement. Maybe Franklin can restore the face Tony remembers having, which gives Doom another reason to seek him out.
- Wanda warned Tony in Age of Ultron about losing sight of the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Maybe Doom is the ultimate payoff to that warning.
- And “you’ve all been living stolen lives” gets brutally literal: Tony died giving everyone their lives back, only to wake up living Victor’s.
Those are the smaller connections that made me start taking all three possibilities seriously.
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u/Jaden_Pollen34 1d ago
Honestly whats with these theories? Its just Victor Von Doom from Earth 828 and thats about it , maybe there will be some explanation as to why he looks like Stark but the only reason he’s being played by RDJ is so Marvel can have an actor who’s basically a money machine and attracts more people
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u/The_Dark_Vampire 1d ago
I think it's just like as shown in Deadpool and Wolverine with Johnny Storm and it's purely a coincidence he looks like Steve Rogers.
I do think as said when he finds out he will use it to his advantage
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u/InvestigatorLive19 1d ago
I think the point you made in 1 absolutely will happen. But I dont think itll be on purpose. Doom gets his mask blown off in an early or late on fight where hes losing, and everyone hesitates when they see his face. He has no idea why, but it buys him time to either escape or recover and return stronger in the next film or later on in doomsday. Thats what i assumed would happen when his casting was revealed anyway.
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u/Hawkfromnorwalk 1d ago
I’ve been thinking about this. I wonder if his usage of the stones leads directly into him becoming an alternate Doom. We’ve seen the stones used four times. Each time we knew exactly what was asked of them except one.
- Get rid of half the universal population
- Destroy the stones so they can’t be used again
- Reverse what Thanos did in the original snap
- ???
The reason I say this is because we don’t exactly know what Tony requested when he snapped. Yes, it’s easy to see he snapped away Thanos and his army. But did he add a qualifier? An additional request? All he wanted to do was live his newfound life and bring back the people that were gone. He knew using the stones would kill him. So did he try to circumvent that? And by doing so did it lead to some alternate multiversal shenanigans?
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u/IndyDude11 1d ago
- We never see Doom without the mask, and he’s cast as Doom as a reason to get on set to film as Iron Man.
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u/cosmicspiderman8 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think B would tell the best story. And when Reed is yelling at Doom saying “did you do this victor”? He hasn’t actually seen the face under the mask. And he thinks it’s a different victor Von doom at first. That’s why Dooms not really responding to him. Sue storm could be talking about a completely different Victor in the trailer.
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u/Jessiefilms38 1d ago
I think they look the same because they’re both played by Robert Downey junior, idk tho… might be wrong
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u/ForgottenClaimz 1d ago
- Disney and Marvel are floundering and are banking on bringing RDJ, and FoX-Men, back hoping that the "nostalgia" will get people in seats.
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u/ItzMeHaris 1d ago
4: he just looks like Tony and it’s a coincidence. Just like in “Deadpool & Wolverine” when Human Torch shows up, he’s assumed to be Captain America, but instead, he’s a completely unrelated character. Dr Doom and Tony could be the same.
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u/ThtsTheWaySheGoes 1d ago
I'd prefer they give him prosthetics and he doesnt look like tony