We Finally Have Our First Look At The MCU’s Doom
The future of Marvel lies in a light show.
It’s been more than a year since Marvel announced Robert Downey, Jr. will star in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Since then, we’ve learned surprisingly little. There was a short teaser of Doomsday at the end of Thunderbolts, and then we saw the back of the iconic villain in the mid-credits scene of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. This was apparently actually Downey as Doom, but it was still a very nondescript appearance.
Finally, we have a glimpse of what the MCU’s Doom will actually look like. But this reveal came not in a post-credits scene or a big Comic-Con presentation. Instead, it came in a marketing expo far from Hollywood.
At the Walt Disney Studios Marketing Expo in Shanghai, China, characters from Disney’s upcoming major projects were shown outside the convention center. Buzz Lightyear, Judy Hopps, and Mickey Mouse appear on one side while Spider-Man, Dr. Doom, and The Mandalorian and Grogu appear on the other. This is the first official image of Dr. Doom’s face (or, rather, mask) we’ve seen at all, and while it doesn’t reveal much, it’s still a welcome update.
However, this was just the beginning of Dr. Doom’s presence at the expo. Inside, an entire state-of-the-art light show revealed Dr. Doom in motion. Set to the Avengers main theme, the light show depicted Dr. Doom on his iconic throne, in motion, and in his green cloak, plus logos for the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther, and X-Men.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like these images include Robert Downey, Jr. himself; it seems to be just concept art that’s been animated. The jury’s still out on if the still image is RDJ or not, but it does seem to be more illustrative than other promotional art. There is one big reveal in this sequence, though: Doom is shown wielding Shang-Chi’s Ten Rings.
It’s not the first time that Marvel has used a light show to reveal an iconic villain. Back in 2024, during the same San Diego Comic-Con where Doom was announced, a drone show was used to show Galactus ahead of The Fantastic Four: The First Steps, even though the movie hadn’t even begun filming yet. With Avengers: Doomsday now filming, the design for Doom has at least been finalized, so it’s likely this appearance is at least partially accurate.
