The MCU Wasted Its Last Opportunity To Bring Robert Downey Jr. Back Before Avengers: Doomsday

Published Aug 29, 2026, 9:45 PM EDT Liz Declan is a Lead Writer for ScreenRant, primarily covering movies. She is a massive fan of Star Wars, the MCU, and Supernatural. In addition to writing, Liz loves attending and covering conventions and interviewing actors. Find her on TikTok and Instagram @va.va.vera Spider-Man: Brand New Day surpassed everyone's expectations by having an absolutely staggering box office run, breaking the $2 billion threshold and continuing to climb. Even beyond just bringing audiences to the theater, though, Brand New Day did what essentially feels like the impossible by truly winning audiences over. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, like other massive franchises such as DC or Star Wars, tends to suffer from backlash and mixed fan responses to new movies and TV shows. However, that was far from true with Brand New Day. Rather, this new Spider-Man movie proved that audiences apparently don't so much have superhero fatigue as they do fatigue with stories that disappoint on the big screen and try to cover up myriad issues, from pacing problems to plots riddled with holes and more, with intense action sequences and cameos. This is especially good news considering Brand New Day was setting the stage for the MCU's next theatrical release, Avengers: Doomsday. In fact, Doomsday has an even bigger hill to climb as the first Avengers movie since Avengers: Endgame—largely seen as one of the best MCU movies. Doomsday is also already on shaky ground to a degree because audiences are eager (and perhaps a bit nervous) to learn whether the return of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers and the debut of Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom will feel justified or will come across as poorly executed fan service, which would be a massive disappointment. While that isn't necessarily directly connected to Brand New Day, there was one way Brand New Day could have brought Downey Jr. back ahead of Doomsday and made this transition easier. Surprisingly, though, the movie didn't take it. Spider-Man: Brand New Day Had The Perfect Opportunity To Show Tony Stark Among the most significant narrative details of Brand New Day is that Peter Parker has become isolated following the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which saw not only the brutal death of Aunt May literally in Peter's arms but also the need for everyone to forget who Peter Parker was, including his best friend, Ned, and girlfriend, MJ. Brand New Day picks up five years later, with Peter only watching social media posts of MJ and Ned from a distance and otherwise living a completely secluded lifestyle (unless you count his superhero-related relationships with Frank Castle and Detective DeWolff). Peter has become so alone, in fact, that it is contributing to the mutation of his DNA, making him, effectively, less human. This comes to a head in his confrontations with who is ultimately revealed to be Jean Grey and leads to an emotional flashback sequence showcasing the many people he has loved and lost, including Aunt May, MJ, and Ned. Shockingly, however, Tony Stark was not among the people included in that sequence, even though it could have been the perfect way to incorporate Downey Jr. and would have made complete sense. There's little doubt Peter still mourns Tony. This created a wave of (albeit small) backlash online, as some were outraged that the movie didn't include at least a shot or two of Tony in that sequence. Adding to that was the fact that Brand New Day made no other direct reference to Tony. The closest we got was the bag from Tony to Peter that had once contained his suit and a note that said it was for him, which appeared in his memory with Aunt May, and several shots that were clearly references to Iron Man, such as the shot of Peter's eyes within his suit. This Decision Could Have Been The Perfect Bridge To Doomsday While it's not the end of the world that Brand New Day didn't feature a clip of Tony in that flashback sequence, and this is clearly still a great movie, it was an odd choice—and not only for fan service or nostalgia's sake. Including Robert Downey Jr. in this montage would have given the MCU a valid reason to show him on screen again ahead of Doomsday, arguably making that transition even smoother. Granted, RDJ is returning not as Stark but rather as Doom, so it wouldn't have meant any additional narrative continuity, presumably. However, it couldn't have hurt to give audiences a glimpse of Tony in Spider-Man: Brand New Day as the final theatrical release ahead of Doomsday, no doubt reminding them of just how brilliant that character was (and perhaps making them a little bit more forgiving when it comes to accepting Downey Jr. now as Doctor Doom). Spider-Man: Brand New Day 7/10 Release Date July 29, 2026 Runtime 145 minutes Cast Peter Parker / Spider-Man Four years after No Way Home, Peter Parker lives alone, forgotten by everyone he loves, and devotes himself entirely to being Spider-Man. Avengers: Doomsday Release Date December 18, 2026 Runtime 165 Minutes Cast Vanessa Kirby Sue Storm / Invisible Woman Johnny Storm / Human Torch Ebon Moss-Bachrach Ben Grimm / The Thing Avengers: Doomsday is the fifth Avengers film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and will bring together heroes, new and old, to face off against Victor von Doom - played by the returning Robert Downey Jr. The upcoming film notably marks the beginning of Phase 6 of the MCU.