The writer behind Avengers: Doomsday says he found the idea of bringing back Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom “electric.”
It’s pretty clear that Kevin Feige and the rest of the execs at Marvel Studios are pretty wary about bringing MCU characters back from the dead, despite that being a pretty common thing in the comics themselves. There’s an argument to be made that it’s so the weight of their deaths feels heavier, though honestly, my bet’s on them just not wanting to upset fans mostly, especially because they’re happy to bring back actors, just for different roles. Like, for example, Chris Evans as Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine, and more notably, Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday (and presumably The Fantastic Four: First Steps).
Personally, this tactic feels a bit gimmicky to me, but if you ask writer Stephen McFeely, when he heard what the actual idea was, he was on board. Speaking to Collider, McFeely shared, “When I got the news that this was where it was going, I thought it was pretty electric. There’s an understandable desire to bring Robert Downey Jr. back to the universe, but to do it as Tony Stark would be betraying what I felt was a very lovely ending for him in Endgame. So the powers that be, do all of their business affairs and then it comes to this, so I was very excited to try to bring this thing to life.”
Obviously this is quite a different feeling to his initial one, which he previously shared was quite simply “F**k no”, so clearly the idea was convincing enough for McFeely to come around on it.
Recently Marvel started setting the shoot dates for both Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, which is all well and good, but after an abysmal second weekend drop for Captain America: Brave New World, you have to wonder if it’s too little too late.