Marvel Studios was once again busy over the weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, dropping a new trailer for Avengers: Doomsday strictly for Hall H attendees, updating on Black Panther 3, and more. The crowd went crazy for all of it, but Kevin Feige wasn’t deaf to the criticism that remains out there, and a lot of it has to do with the buildup to Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom.
Speaking with Brandon Davis, Feige addressed criticism that Doom hasn’t received the same years-long buildup that Thanos received prior to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame…
“The Thanos buildup has built up in people’s heads over the years. He sat on a chair at the end. He pulled a gauntlet out and said, ‘I’ll do it myself.’ And he yelled at Ronan on a video screen briefly; that was kind of it…I remember the memes making fun of Thanos for just sitting on a chair with ‘Infinity War’; we said, this is really the introduction of Thanos to people; that’s how that movie was built; that’s what we’re doing with Doctor Doom [with ‘Doomsday’]”
I think Feige is deliberately downplaying things here. Sure, Thanos’ first appearance at the end of The Avengers was pretty lame, and he didn’t have a ton of appearances after that. He was pretty significant in Guardians of the Galaxy, and multiple films dealt with the Infinity Gems, which we knew were tied directly to Thanos. So the villain didn’t have to be there in each film to be considered a threat.
Doom also doesn’t need more of an introduction because who doesn’t know him either from the comics or from various Fantastic Four movies? He’s an iconic villain like Lex Luthor, Magneto, and Joker, which you couldn’t say about Thanos at the time. Also, let’s not forget the initial plan was for Kang to be the big bad, not Doom, and those plans had to shift midstream.
Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18th.
