The “Thunderbolts” star hinted at a potential revelation involving Robert Downey Jr.’s character.

Did David Harbour just drop a major Avengers: Doomsday spoiler?

The “Thunderbolts” star hinted at a potential revelation involving Robert Downey Jr.’s character.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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August 19, 2026 6:57 p.m. ET

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David Harbour in ‘Thunderbolts’. Credit:

Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel

- David Harbour was recently asked to share a line from *Avengers: Doomsday* out of context.

- The response he gave hints at what could be a key moment involving Robert Downey Jr.’s character.

- *Avengers: Doomsday* hits theaters Dec. 18.

David Harbour might have just spoiled a big moment in *Avengers: Doomsday*.

The *Stranger Things* star has remained tight-lipped when discussing the upcoming Marvel crossover movie, which will see him reprise his role as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian from *Black Widow* and *Thunderbolts*.

However, during a wide-ranging interview with *Variety*, the outlet asked Harbour to deliver a line from the movie out of context. He responded, “*You*… are Tony Stark” in a Russian accent (presumably aligned with Alexei’s usual voice) while pointing.

While it’s entirely possible that Harbour was trolling and invented a line out of thin air, if he’s telling the truth, then he could have revealed a pretty significant moment from the film for one of two reasons.

The first, more likely possibility is that Red Guardian says, “*You*… are Tony Stark,” in a scene where Doctor Doom removes his mask.

Doctor Doom in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’.

The supervillain, typically associated with the Fantastic Four, is played by Robert Downey Jr. in *Doomsday*. Downey, of course, previously portrayed Tony Stark/Iron Man in no fewer than 10 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.

Downey’s casting in *Doomsday* was surprising because his time in the MCU ended with 2019’s *Avengers: Endgame*, and audiences didn’t expect him to return to the franchise any time soon. There’s also no precedent for any of Marvel’s major stars to join a new MCU project as a different character than the one they originally played, and Doctor Doom has no strong connection to Tony Stark in the comics that would warrant casting the same actor as both characters.

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Since Doctor Doom almost never removes his mask in the comics, fans have wondered whether Downey’s face will ever be fully visible in *Doomsday*. If Harbour is to be believed, then it sounds like the *Sherlock Holmes* star will eventually unmask in front of some combination of the heroes (including Red Guardian), and that they will recognize him as a dead ringer for Tony.

And, if Tony and Victor Von Doom canonically have the same face, then it’s possible that the latter character will be contextualized as a parallel-universe variant of Iron Man. Other Marvel projects, like *Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness* and *Loki*, have depicted various characters’ multiversal variants, who are sometimes portrayed by the same actors as their usual MCU counterparts and sometimes portrayed by different performers. And we know that Doctor Doom hails from the Fantastic Four’s Earth-828, a parallel universe introduced in *The Fantastic Four: First Steps*, which has yet to acknowledge the existence of its own Tony Stark… so it’s possible that Victor Von Doom is that universe’s version of Tony, hence the resemblance.

Robert Downey Jr. at CinemaCon 2026.

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

The other possible context for Harbour’s purported line is an even bigger potential spoiler: the return of Tony Stark. There’s little expectation that Downey will come back as Iron Man in *Doomsday*, as the character died at the conclusion of *Endgame*.

However, we know that *Doomsday* will center on the convergence of multiple parallel universes, as the Fantastic Four will cross paths with the mainline Avengers *and* the Fox X-Men, who come from their own separate universe. Since there are so many distinct universes at play in the film, it’s possible that another version of Tony Stark (who isn’t Doctor Doom) could factor into the story. Maybe the X-Men universe has its own Tony Stark, who knows?

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*Avengers: Doomsday* hits theaters Dec. 18.

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