Avengers: Doomsday trailers have revealed Sam Wilson’s Avengers and Bucky Barnes’ New Avengers will put aside their trademark issues to unite against the greatest threat to the multiverse. What those trailers haven’t revealed is Robert Downey Jr.’s face. While we’ve heard his legendary villain speak, we haven’t actually seen him. He wears his iconic mask in every promo. Is that because Marvel Studios won’t actually show it until Avengers: Secret Wars? Not according to the MCU’s Red Guardian. David Harbour shared a line from Doomsday that all but confirms Earth-616 will see the face of Iron Man/Tony Stark when they look at their new enemy, Doctor Doom.
Harbour probably offered way more insight than Marvel would like when Variety‘s Clayton Davis asked the MCU’s Alexei Shostakov to share a single line from Avengers: Doomsday. Harbaugh responded with a “deadpan” delivery in his character’s Russian accent while pointing. “You … are Tony Stark,” he said.
David Harbour’s Red Guardian Line Indicates We’ll See Doctor Doom Unmasked in Avengers: Doomsday
This is very funny for a couple reasons. The first is that we can easily imagine Red Guardian saying this to Doctor Doom. It’s a good line, and we know Harbour will deliver it in hilarious fashion. But the second is funny to us, not Marvel. This Doomsday line indicates the Avengers will see Doom without his mask on the movie, which might sound like an obvious and inevitable moment, but it wasn’t a guarantee.
A big part of Victor von Doom’s story involves the reason he wears a mask. The proud super-genius sorcerer hides a “terrible” scar. Some comics reveal he was greatly disfigured. In others, he has only a tiny little scar. The difference is huge and reshapes his whole story. And so, it was possible, even if unlikely, Marvel was going to hold back on revealing Doctor Doom’s face until Secret Wars for that very reason… Especially if it was canonically going to resemble the face of Tony Stark.
Doctor Doom Will Look Like Tony Stark in Avengers: Doomsday
It also certainly wasn’t a guarantee every Avenger would see firsthand that Doctor Doom is a Tony Stark Variant in Avengers: Doomsday. That moment might have been reserved for Tony’s closest friends and fellow Avengers, the people most impacted by his death. That list did not include Red Guardian. We suppose it also wasn’t a guarantee that in-universe Doctor Doom would be conceptualized as looking like Tony Stark.
Ultimately, this single line Avengers: Doomsday might not tell us as much as we think. Red Guardian might even ask because he heard something rather than because he saw anything. Potentially this Avengers: Doomsday Tony Stark line is a red herring and means nothing at all. All of which would explain why Harbour felt okay sharing it. But if nothing else, he just did something no trailer has. He unmasked Doctor Doom.