Robert Downey Jr.’s MCU Return: A Decisive Move, But in Which Direction?

If you’re a Marvel fan who self-identifies as tired, you remember the exact moment that the tides shifted.

For me, it was 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” a film whose staggering lack of imagination and commitment to CGI drudgery left me exiting the theater feeling not only disappointed but offended. My loyalty had been taken for granted, and the bar for holding on to it lowered to unrecognizable new depths.

There have been ups and downs since then. I adored “Ms. Marvel” and enjoyed “Echo,” two Disney+ series minimally burdened by the multiverse. While I agree with the critiques of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” my early-2000s X-Men heart was cackling and clapping throughout. But not much of the post-“Avengers: Endgame” repertoire has compelled me to watch, rewatch, theorize, and get excited in the way that I did before.

For the execs at Marvel, that’s a problem. I alone am not the MCU’s target demographic, but audience retention used to be a critical part of the franchise’s success. So what’s the most obvious way to pull back the viewers who propelled the MCU in its heyday? Give them more of what they loved.

On Saturday, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige announced that Joe and Anthony Russo — directors of “Infinity War” and “Endgame” and two of the three “Captain America” films thus far — would return for two Avengers films debuting in 2026 and 2027, and that Robert Downey Jr. would rejoin the franchise as Victor Von Doom.

Hall H burst into applause and chants of “RDJ!” but disbelief online quickly calcified into discontent. Even fans who predicted the casting choice on Reddit lamented their prophetic power, while others pointed out that Downey’s return undermines his emotional sendoff in “Endgame.” A number of posts on X (formerly Twitter) put forth other options for the role, as well as jokes about other original key cast members coming back to fill out the multiverse roster.

I have no doubt that Downey will devour the role and make it his own as he did with Tony Stark, but the key difference now is that he’s already done it. He was the rock upon which Feige built his church, the surprising casting choice who delivered a brilliant comeback, and since then, he’s continued to do interesting work from his Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer” role to HBO’s recent “The Sympathizer.” To put it bluntly, he doesn’t need Marvel, nor does the studio particularly need to be sinking that many zeros into someone it supposedly bade goodbye.

Downey and the Russos’ return casts a sharp light on Marvel’s priorities; the studio is more concerned about the MCU fading from its former zeitgeist glory than with the creative bankruptcy called into question over the past five years. The aforementioned glory came from betting on Downey when others wouldn’t, casting two unknown actors named Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston, or bringing in directors like Ryan Coogler and giving them freedom to play in a multimillion-dollar sandbox. Downey’s Hall H return is the definitive death of that Marvel (a death that will stick, unlike others in canon).

As my colleague David Ehrlich wrote in his review of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “the story of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has long been more compelling than any of the stories told in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” and this weekend’s news out of Hall H both supports and challenges that statement. Even the MCU’s story is repeating itself now, and that choice will ripple through its stories. Maybe somewhere else in the multiverse, I’m excited about it — but in the one reality we’ve got, I’m still tired.