The specter of Avengers: Infinity War loomed large over Avengers: Doomsday, according to Robert Downey Jr. in a new interview with CBR. Infinity War was the culmination of 18 previous movies’ worth of plot development and worldbuilding, and the fact that it managed to pull together all of those threads and deliver a gut-punch of a film was nothing short of miraculous.
But that movie—and its sequel, Avengers: Endgame—was an expected triumph, a victory lap for a massive and mostly very well-received franchise the likes of which the world had never before seen. Eight years later, the landscape into which Avengers: Doomsday will be released couldn’t be more different. Superhero fatigue has set in, and Marvel isn’t the impenetrable juggernaut of consistently high-quality films it once was. Plus, the Avengers brand carries its own heavy expectations thanks to Infinity War and Endgame. For Avengers: Doomsday, there’s a lot to live up to.
But, according to Downey Jr., Avengers: Doomsday is more than ready to take on that challenge. “There’s something going on in Doomsday and forward that is literally the only antidote to, ‘How do you not have these films be [a] let down after an Infinity War and an Endgame?’ And boy, have we labored long and hard to bring that down,” he told CBR.
Doomsday co-director Joe Russo expanded on how the film lives up to its predecessors, saying, “…Emotional complexity is always the answer. You bring emotional complexity to anything, and it enriches it. It makes it a fuller experience for the audience. It surprises you. There are a lot of surprises in this. And I think [Doomsday is] the most emotionally complex of all of them. And in a lot of ways, the most mature of all of them.”
Those are strong words, considering Infinity War ended with the Avengers facing a catastrophic failure that forced the heroes to confront their deepest insecurities. With much less material to draw from, Avengers: Doomsday is facing an uphill battle. Still, it’s hard to not want to believe Downey Jr. and Russo—they’ve done the impossible before, after all.
Avengers: Doomsday releases in theaters on December 18, 2026.
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