Avengers: Endgame Encore’s New Doctor Doom Scene Explains The Iron Man Question We’ve All Been Wondering

Published Sep 26, 2026, 4:45 PM EDT Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Avengers: Endgame Encore's new additions to Doctor Doom's story in the MCU have served to help answer a major question we've all been wondering, in terms of it delving into how the franchise will address the connection between Doctor Doom and Iron Man. Ever since it was revealed that Robert Downey Jr. would be taking on the role of Victor Von Doom in the MCU timeline, fans have been curious about how the MCU will explore this matter, since the actor is already majorly famous for playing one of the franchise's biggest heroes. Of course, this is a subject that requires a careful hand. Leaning too hard into Iron Man and Doom being played by the same actor risks entirely reducing one of Marvel's best comic villains into a figure whose story is sidelined in the MCU for an already-dead hero. However, ignoring it entirely would also present its own problems for the franchise, especially given how synonymous Robert Downey Jr. is with Iron Man still. Avengers: Endgame Encore suggests the MCU and those working on it have managed to find a careful balance between these two ends of the spectrum, though, as its approach to Doctor Doom and Iron Man's MCU similarities make no secret of the links between the two characters, while ensuring Doom doesn't simply feel like a villainous version of Iron Man for those less well versed in the comic lore. Avengers: Endgame Encore's Doctor Doom Mask Scene Draws Clear Iron Man Parallels Avengers: Endgame Encore's new additional scenes in no small way revolve around Doctor Doom, showing him interacting with Bruce Banner, and also crucially showing Doom creating his own mask, which is an integral part of the character's story and design. The latter sequence is notably made with some clear parallels to Iron Man and his own time crafting his helmet and suit, replicating the original Endgame moment wherein the sound of Iron Man building his first suit of armor played in the film's closing seconds. This change thus seems to intentionally mirror Iron Man's crucial early steps in the 2008 Iron Man movie while replacing him with Doom, similar to how Riri Williams got her own version of this Iron Man scene in the MCU to symbolize her connection with and similarity to the iconic flagship hero previously. Doctor Doom's own take here appears to work in much the same way, which shows the MCU being willing to draw on the commonalities between the two characters Robert Downey Jr. has played in the franchise even though it's been established that Doom is not Tony Stark in the MCU, shedding light on how the franchise will approach the matter of one of the most famous and recognizable MCU stars taking on another role going forward. Encore's Doctor Doom Scene Helps To Show How Robert Downey Jr's Villain Can Parallel Iron Man Without Being Tony Stark Were the MCU to avoid any reference to Doctor Doom and Iron Man being played by the same actor, the decision to have Robert Downey Jr. return in the role might feel somewhat jarring to audiences, even if the storyline were to otherwise be pulled off flawlessly. As such, building on the similarities between the two characters by leaning into the ways in which Iron Man and Doctor Doom mirror one another despite their drastically different roles in the MCU and in Marvel's comic lore more broadly speaking seems to be a wise move for the franchise overall. Given the MCU appears to be going down the line of Doctor Doom being someone whose hopes of saving his own universe and possibly the multiverse take him down some dark lines, it makes even more sense to draw on his similarities to Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame Encore in terms of his tech skill and ability to create things, as his questionable use of them for the "greater good" could mirror the same narrative we saw with Tony Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and can use this backdrop to build a richer story for the MCU villain.