MCU fans divided over our 'first look' at RDJ's Doctor Doom

Filming for Avengers: Doomsday is finally under the way ahead of the film’s planned release on 1 May 2026.

It’s an ambitious release date.

Fair to say, several Marvel projects have come under fire in recent years for their sketchy CGI.

If filming is only just beginning and likely won’t conclude until autumn of this year at the very earliest, that’s not exactly giving those working in post-production a ton of time to prepare and refine the VFX.

But I’ll withhold judgement; maybe it’s a very practical film.

There’s so much that we don’t know about Doomsday, although that awful five-hour cast reveal seemingly signalled that it’ll be the Avengers, Thunderbolts, X-Men, and Fantastic Four who are focused on taking down Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom.

Saying that, the only true ‘Avengers’ included in the cast list so far are Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Anthony Mackie’s Captain America, Letitia Wright’s Black Panther, Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man, and Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi.

There are plenty more familiar Avengers not yet slated to appear in the film.

I’m sure Marvel is attempting to keep the full cast list under wraps; well, that goes for all of the film’s secrets.

We may have an idea of what look RDJ’s Doom will be sporting though.

Thunderbolts* is the next film to drop in the MCU.

RDJ recently celebrated his 60th birthday with his party invitation possibly hinting at Doom’s new look.

The front of the invite features a new comic book-style image of Doom and as pointed out by Reddit user RedditorGoldVirgin, it features a “curly/wavy hair” design, “a drastic look from [RDJ’s] straight hair in the cast announcement”.

The invite cover was shared to XCancel by user rdjpicsvault.

It featured the curly-haired Doom standing atop an ornate carriage driven by two top-hat wearing Dooms dressed in the usual masked attire.

Hairdo aside, this Doom is far more militaristic than we’re used to, sporting a utilitarian green jumpsuit, although he is donning a fur-lined purple cape like you might see in one of the UK’s ceremonial royal events.

I’m dubious as to whether the actor would spoil details about Doom like this though.

It seems far more likely that RDJ simply asked Marvel to knock up a London-themed Doom invite to share with his family and friends.

“That’s absolutely not the look and something that was quickly put together for a bday invite,” wrote Reddit user ViralGameover.

“Yep. RDJ wouldn't risk spoiling this on a bday invitation,” replied TheCosmicFailure.

The plot thickens though.

A photo posted to XCancel by user Alyss_ confirms that RDJ was indeed sporting a curly do that perfectly matches that donned by Doom in the aforementioned image.

With that in mind, I think it’s safe to assume that this is the hairstyle we’ll see the character sport while the rest of the outfit’s details are likely just a silly bit of birthday fun.