Filming has been underway on Avengers: Doomsday in the UK since April, and while things have been fairly quiet over the past few weeks (the set photos ceased when shooting moved indoors), that doesn't mean everything is running smoothly behind-the-scenes.
During this week's episode of The Hot Mic, Jeff Sneider shared what he's been hearing about the Doomsday shoot, most notably in regard to star Robert Downey Jr. and what led to Marvel/Disney planning three weeks of reshoots.
According to Sneider, the original plan was to use a stand-in for a lot of Downey's scenes - until the actor decided that it simply wasn't working out.
"They had a body double and a face double, and Robert would stand outside the scene reading the lines. And apparently, after two or three weeks, he said, 'This isn't working. I want to shoot the whole thing with me in the suit.'"
Sneider has also heard that “a lot of testosterone and a lot of ego” has resulted in some "dysfunction" on the Doomsday set.
"The dysfunction I've heard about on set is second only to that of the Fast and Furious movies. I mean, we mentioned a behind-the-scenes incident earlier this year that I didn't want to go into detail about, and someone probably made it sound more dramatic than it actually was, but… yeah, I think, again, there's a lot of testosterone and a lot of ego on that set. A lot of people who think they know the best path. In the end, only one person's path matters, and that's actually Robert Downey Jr.'s path."
At the end of the day, if RDJ felt the movie would be improved by him suiting-up for these scenes himself, then so be it. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo and the Marvel/Disney higher-ups evidently agreed with him, and it's not as if a few weeks worth of additional photography is going to break the bank.
As for the other stuff, well, no film set is without a bit of tension, but for what it's worth, we have heard that a clash between two particular actors became so heated that certain scenes involving their respective characters had to be altered or removed from the script entirely.
What do you make of these rumors? Drop us a comment down below.
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were recently hit with significant delays, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
You can check out the full (for now) Doomsday cast list below.
• Paul Rudd as Ant-Man
• Simu Liu as Shang-Chi
• Tom Hiddleston as Loki
• Lewis Pullman as Sentry
• Florence Pugh as Yelena
• Danny Ramirez as Falcon
• Ian McKellen as Magneto
• Sebastian Stan as Bucky
• Winston Duke as M’Baku
• Chris Hemsworth as Thor
• Kelsey Grammer as Beast
• James Marsden as Cyclops
• Channing Tatum as Gambit
• Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
• Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm
• Rebecca Romijn as Mystique
• Patrick Stewart as Professor X
• Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler
• Letitia Wright as Black Panther
• Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor
• Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards
• Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost
• Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm
• David Harbour as Red Guardian
• Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing
• Anthony Mackie as Captain America