Is Avengers: Doomsday Really Centering on Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans? The Truth Behind the Buzz
Chris Evans, who hung up the shield in Endgame, is confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday in a mystery role—fueling buzz that he and Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom will take center stage, a bold twist on Doom’s classic rivalry with Reed Richards.
Marvel rumor roulette just landed on a wild one: Chris Evans is back for Avengers: Doomsday, and fans think that means he is squaring up against Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. Yes, that pairing. No, not the one you were expecting.
The rumor everyone is running with
Even though Steve Rogers retired at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Evans is confirmed to appear in Avengers: Doomsday in an undisclosed role. Robert Downey Jr. is also in the movie, but as Victor Von Doom this time. Put those two facts together and the current fan theory says the movie pivots away from Doom vs Reed Richards and goes all-in on Doom vs Steve Rogers.
'Doctor Doom and Reed Richards classic rivalry is not the core of the movie. Doom is actually after Steve Rogers.'
To be clear: Doom’s traditional nemesis is Reed Richards. But the idea of Downey and Evans facing off again is catnip for audiences, and fans are connecting the dots fast.
Why this take has traction
The Steve vs Tony history already exists, which some fans think is the point. If Marvel is introducing Doom this late in the Multiverse saga, there might not be enough runway to build his decades-long beef with Reed from scratch. One argument I saw: the movie could lean on the audience’s built-in emotional investment in Steve and Tony to make a Doom vs Steve conflict land immediately.
And the fan chatter is exactly what you think it is: people cheering the idea of skipping Reed entirely, others framing it as a man who got his time back (Steve) taking on a man trying to reshape time and reality (Doom), and more than a few box office hot takes predicting a $2 billion haul if Evans and Downey go head-to-head again. Subtle, it is not.
But does Doom actually fight Cap in the comics?
Occasionally, yes — just not as archenemies. Doom’s beef is usually with the Fantastic Four, and when he crosses the Avengers, Steve ends up in the middle because he is, well, Captain America. A couple of notable dust-ups:
- Doom traps the Avengers in Latveria to one-up the Fantastic Four. Cap leads the team, they reach a stalemate with Doom, and eventually make their escape.
- Right after Steve is thawed from the ice, he gets sent on a black-ops mission to intervene in a Latverian coup, where a young Victor Von Doom is emperor. They throw down. Cap wins that round.
Point is, they have history, but Doom is not laser-focused on Steve the way he is on Reed. If the movie makes Doom vs Cap the central rivalry, that is a creative swing, not a straight lift from the books.
The Reed Richards wrinkle
Reed (reportedly played by Pedro Pascal) has barely been introduced in the MCU. That is why this theory makes a certain amount of sense: a Downey/Evans showdown is a much faster sell than trying to establish Doom and Reed’s lifelong feud from zero in one film.
Where this lands right now
Evans is in Doomsday in a mystery role. Downey is Doom. Fans are convinced the movie will pit them against each other. None of that guarantees the classic Doom/Reed rivalry is off the table long-term; it just suggests Doomsday might chase the immediate spark of Evans vs Downey while the MCU sets the rest of the chessboard.
Avengers: Doomsday opens December 18, 2026 in the US.