Avengers: Doomsday has officially revealed the first look at the film’s big bad: the titular Doctor Doom, played by none other than former Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr.
Fans briefly saw the back of the character in the credit scene of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, holding his mask in his hand while ominously kneeling in front of young Franklin Richards. Other than that, we’ve seen RDJ on stage in a green cape and suit with a cheap mask, and that’s it.
But now an official piece of artwork by Marvel Studios’ (sadly former) Director of Visual Development Andy Park has revealed what Doom will look like in the film. Or at least, what his masked face and hood look like.
Related: UK film release dates
The mask design the film has gone for features a segmented nose, weld spots around the eye holes and running down along the sides, with a curved chin and a simple mouth grill.
Underneath the mask, we see that Doom has bright blue eyes that look like they could be glowing, or it could be just a ‘lens flare’ effect added for the artwork.
Elsewhere on the artwork, we see a lot of the heroes that have featured in the recent films and shows: The Thunderbolts/New Avengers (with a new, non-taco shaped shield for Walker), Thor, Ant-Man, Black Panther and M’Baku, Shang-Chi, Captain America and Falcon, the Fantastic Four (wearing very spiffy jackets), and Loki.
Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers is also given a big spot on the illustration. Interestingly he’s not wearing any costume, but he is wielding Mjölnir while Thor is carrying Stormbreaker.
Marvel Studios
Related: Avengers: Doomsday is “starting over from scratch”: “We are back to Phase Zero”
Front and centre, we’ve got the original trilogy X-Men, many of whom haven’t been seen on the big screen in over a decade.
There’s James Marsden’s Cyclops and Ian McKellen’s Magneto (wearing their most comic-accurate costumes yet), Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier, Rebecca Romijn’s Mystique (who’s sporting a new look), Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler, and Kelsey Grammar’s Beast.
They’re joined by Channing Tatum’s Gambit, who was introduced in Deadpool & Wolverine.
There are plenty of rumoured characters for the film who don’t appear on this illustration, but that might just mean that their appearances are being kept secret for now.
In the caption accompanying the image, Park reflected on how Doomsday is the final film he worked on for the studio and called it “truly an honor” to work there for as long as he did.
“This one was definitely a beast to paint, but I genuinely enjoyed every minute of it,” he said of this illustration, stating that it represents “the challenges, the victories, the teamwork, the relationships, and all the fun we had bringing it to life”.
The promotional and hype cycle for Doomsday looks like it’s finally starting to kick into high gear, with the first full trailer for the film set to premiere at Marvel’s Comic-Con panel on Saturday, 25 June (the early hours of Sunday morning in the UK).
Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to be released on 18 December 2026.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.