Robert Downey Jr.’s Return To TV After 22 Years Resulted In A Genre-Bending Masterpiece

Published Aug 8, 2026, 5:30 PM EDT Faith Roswell is a Senior Writer on Screen Rant's Classic TV team. Since earning her degree in Creative Writing over a decade ago, Faith has written articles on film and TV from a variety of different angles. Faith now combines her knowledge of psychology with her love of monster movies to give more insight into what makes the best ones. You may have read her Screen Rant lists and features covering horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, or read her Amazon Top 10 book, "Movie Monsters of the Deep." Faith has had an extensive career as a writer, appearing on BBC live radio, researching true crime for Rotten Mango podcast, and writing for publications including Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, and The Daily Jaws before beginning here at Screen Rant. While already an established actor, Robert Downey Jr.'s MCU role as Iron Man turned him into a global star, with the character taking his career in a new direction. The actor has now become so defined by his role and the buzz around his upcoming return as Doctor Doom that it is easy to forget that many of Robert Downey Jr.'s best movies and TV shows have been much more experimental, making use of his versatility and ability to inhabit quirky characters. This includes a wartime drama which saw him winning a Saturn Award for his supporting role. HBO's thriller The Sympathizer is a seven-episode miniseries about a North Vietnamese spy known as The Captain, who serves undercover in the South Vietnamese Army and begins to struggle with his life and loyalties. The Sympathizer is based on the real-life fall of Saigon, and showcases some of Downey Jr's best and most underrated acting work in years. Not only was this his first onscreen TV show appearance as a character other than himself since Ally McBeal in 2002, but Downey Jr.'s performance in The Sympathizer even outshines Oppenheimer. The Sympathizer Is A War Thriller That Also Serves As A Dark Comedy On the surface, The Sympathizer is a wartime-era spy thriller with many of the genre's most enduring tropes, from harrowing torture scenes and high-stakes scenarios, like the characters' panicked dash to avoid bombs dropping. However, there is more to the story as the series also counts as a historical drama that explores life as a refugee in Los Angeles, while skewering Hollywood filmmaking. The Sympathizer satirizes the rigid ideologies and cultural arrogance from a perspective outside of America, often verging into dark comedy territory. Director Park Chan-wook (The Vengeance Trilogy) regularly combines genres with this approach being a hallmark of his career. In an interview with Screen Rant, Chan-wook explains The Sympathizer's genre blend, saying, "all of my works have been sort of a composite of different genres," and confirming that this was a deliberate approach on his part due to his preference for reflecting the multifaceted lives people lead, which rarely fit neatly into a box and defy categorization. In Chan-wook's words, "the thing is, our lives are a composite of many different elements, just like genres." Downey Jr. has a remarkably wide dramatic range, from the sci-fi movie A Scanner Darkly to playing Sherlock Holmes in the action comedy reinterpretations of the classic British detective story. He is no stranger to boundary-pushing dark comedies like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Tropic Thunder, making The Sympathizer the perfect show to begin his return to TV, with the series incorporating elements of each of these earlier movies. The Sympathizer also marked a return to TV for Chan-wook, who had been an executive producer on the dystopian TV show Snowpiercer but had not directed a TV show since his 2018 spy drama, The Little Drummer Girl. Reviews for The Sympathizer were overwhelmingly positive, with the series earning an 89% positive critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Reviewers praised the seamless blending of genres, the performance of Hoa Xuande (Cowboy Bebop) as The Captain, and Robert Downey Jr.'s role, which saw him take on a career first in which he is credited for playing five different characters. Robert Downey Jr.'s Multi-Character Performance Set New Standards For A-Listers On TV At first glance, it is not always obvious that Downey Jr. is in The Sympathizer at all, as he plays several characters under layers of disguise that often render him unrecognizable. The choice to have one actor portray different characters was very deliberate, with the actor being transformed by hairpieces, facial prosthetics, make-up, colored contact lenses, and his own changes in mannerisms to become the people Chan-wook described as "the faces that represent America." Robert Downey Jr.'s characters in The Sympathizer Name Character Claude A CIA Agent and The Captain's mentor Niko Damianos An American filmmaker Professor Robert Hammer An educator obsessed with Japanese culture Ned Godwin A warmongering right wing politician and veteran The Priest Surprise final cameo as a French priest Not all of Downey Jr's characters in The Sympathizer have equal screentime, with Claude being the most important as the constant presence in The Captain's life. That said, each of the characters he plays show the viewer elements of America through The Captain's eyes, and very few of these perceptions are flattering. With each of these roles representing archetypes, The Sympathizer's defining moment comes during a steakhouse dinner scene in which The Captain is joined by four of Downey Jr.'s characters, all of whom have something they want from him. Playing more than one character in a film or TV project is a challenging task for any actor, but Downey Jr. also has to converse with himself in multiple scenes, maintaining the necessary tension while highlighting the often-ludicrous tone of the encounter. This, combined with the need to act through prosthetics, makes Downey Jr's performance one of the best multiple character roles played by a TV actor, despite being better known as a movie star with comparatively few TV show appearances. Will Robert Downey Jr. Return To TV Again? Robert Downey Jr. has been the face of some enormously successful movie franchises in his capacity as both Iron Man/Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes. However, while these highlight his ability to develop a character over time to the point that they and he are inseparable, a TV project would be a new challenge. He has appeared in several TV shows, but after Ally McBeal, he has generally played himself, worked in a hosting capacity, or been an executive producer, except for a 2005 voice acting role as Patrick Pewterschmidt in Family Guy. The Sympathizer showcased Downey Jr.'s skill at nuanced work, with the self-aware TV series requiring performances that were just a step away from being caricatures. Still, despite The Sympathizer being Downey Jr's best performance in years, it was largely ignored due to the subject matter being considerably niche. The genre blend that made the show a masterpiece sometimes worked against it, with serious drama fans being put off by the dark comedy, and comedy viewers finding the brutality somewhat jarring. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that Downey Jr. will be starring in any similar projects soon. The MCU is recasting Robert Downey Jr., with the actor returning as Doctor Doom in The Avengers franchise after Tony Stark/Iron Man sacrificed himself to defeat Thanos in the Infinity Saga. With the role being central to a larger Marvel rebrand, it is likely that he will anchor several storylines with more movies. It is not out of the question that Downey Jr. could take on another TV project like The Sympathizer in the future, but for now, the best place to see him play more than one character is in the MCU. The Sympathizer 8/10 Release Date 2024 - 2024-00-00 Network HBO Cast Claude / Professor Hammer / Ned Godwin / Niko Damianos / Priest Showrunner Park Chan-wook, Don McKellar