Avengers: Doomsday Needs To Solve The MCU’s Tony Stark Replacement Problem

Avengers: Doomsday Has A Tony Stark Replacement Problem It Can’t Ignore

Published Oct 8, 2026, 8:30 PM EDT

Sky Blanton is a Movie Contributor at ScreenRant with professional experience covering movies, television, and pop culture. Her published work spans news, interviews, features, and opinion pieces, with a focus on film, franchise storytelling, and the entertainment industry.

She earned her bachelor's degree in Communications with a concentration in Professional Writing and a minor in Business Writing from Southern New Hampshire University.

Although Avengers: Doomsday won't be lacking a heavy presence from Robert Downey Jr., it will presumably be without Tony Stark, which presents a massive challenge for the upcoming film. Tony Stark was never the easiest Avenger to rally around, but he was usually the one who pushed the team forward. His ego created friction, but his quick thinking and willingness to put himself on the line could also force the Avengers to act.

Seven years later after his death in Avengers: Endgame, the MCU has no shortage of heroes, but it still has not found anyone who fills that space. Sam Wilson is now Captain America, Shang-Chi has entered the larger universe, and Doomsday will bring the Avengers together with The Fantastic Four and X-Men. Robert Downey Jr. is back too, only this time as Doctor Doom instead of Tony Stark. Suddenly, Marvel has more major characters to juggle than ever without the personality who once helped connect them.

That is a bigger problem than deciding who stands at the front of the team. Doomsday needs someone who can create chemistry between heroes who have never met, challenge decisions when the group disagrees, and keep such a crowded crossover from breaking into separate storylines. Tony could do all of that without every scene turning into a leadership speech. Whoever takes on that function now does not need to resemble Iron Man, but someone has to make this massive gathering actually feel like the Avengers.

Replacing Tony Stark Is Doomsday's Biggest Problem

Tony Stark may not have been the Avengers’ formal leader, but he was often the one whose choices changed where the story went next. In Age of Ultron, he secretly uses Loki’s scepter to help create Ultron, then spends the rest of the movie dealing with the consequences. In Civil War, his support for the Sokovia Accords puts him directly against Steve and eventually helps split the Avengers in two.

Infinity War gives him that same purpose again. Tony argues over whether to turn Ebony Maw’s ship around, decides to take the fight to Thanos on Titan, and helps build the plan to remove the Infinity Gauntlet. He was rarely just following whatever mission the Avengers had already agreed on. Tony kept making decisions that forced everyone else to adjust, push back, or follow him somewhere new.

That is the role Doomsday still has to replace. Sam Wilson can give the order, Doctor Strange can make a difficult call in a crisis, and Reed Richards can bring another level of intelligence to the room. Tony, though, brought something more disruptive. He could challenge Steve in front of the team, pull Bruce into an experiment nobody else knew about, or make a decision that created an entirely new problem.

Marvel does not need another Tony Stark, but it does need someone capable of creating that kind of movement inside the group. When the new Avengers disagree over how to deal with Doom, somebody has to push the argument further, make the unpopular call, or send the team down a different path. Without that person, Doomsday could put everyone in the same room without ever making them feel like the Avengers.

4 Candidates To Lead The Avengers

With Tony gone, the Avengers still have a leadership vacuum at the center of the team. Doomsday has several characters who could fill it, but each would change the group in a very different way. Curiously, one pontential candidate is the very character Iron Man worked so hard to kill in Captain America: Civil War - Bucky Barnes.

Bucky Barnes has already shown he can step into a messy situation without waiting for someone else to take charge. In Thunderbolts, he investigates Valentina from Congress, tracks down Yelena, Walker, Ghost, and Red Guardian, and later brings them to New York once Bob’s powers spiral out of control. Bucky has seen firsthand what happens when an Avengers team fractures, which gives him a better sense than most of when to step in before another one does the same.

Sue Storm already proved in The Fantastic Four: First Steps that she can lead without making everything about herself. She runs the Future Foundation, helped negotiate peace with Subterranea, and is the one who addresses the world after Galactus demands Franklin in exchange for Earth. She brings a calmer kind of authority, one built around keeping people focused and moving together rather than forcing everyone to follow her lead.

Loki may be an unexpected choice, but almost no one has a clearer sense of what could be lost if Doomsday tears the multiverse apart. By the end of Loki Season 2, he is literally holding the branching timelines together after destroying the Temporal Loom. The same character who once forced the Avengers to assemble is now responsible for keeping countless timelines alive. That puts Loki in a very different position heading into Doomsday, with more firsthand experience of the multiverse than almost anyone else involved.

Yelena Belova in Thunderbolts already shows her becoming the person the team looks to when everything starts falling apart. She recognizes Bob’s fear before most of the others understand what is happening to him, and when the Void consumes New York, she goes into that darkness rather than treating him like an enemy who needs to be put down.

Yelena is still sarcastic and confrontational, but she also knows when fighting is not the answer. That could make her the person who keeps the team from turning every crisis into another fight in Avengers: Doomsday.

• 

  Victor von Doom

• 

  Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic

• 

  Thor

• 

  Vanessa Kirby

  Sue Storm / Invisible Woman