Robert Downey Jr. Is Getting a Massive Payday For Marvel Return

It’s good to be the king (of Latveria).

Robert Downey Jr. was retired from Marvel movies after Avengers: Endgame, and it reportedly took a massive (borderline marvelous) payday to lure him back to the company to star in the next two Avengers movies, Doomsday and Secret Wars.

According to Variety’s sources, “Marvel is plunking down $80 million for Anthony and Joe Russo to direct Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars and significantly more for Downey to tackle uber-villain Doctor Doom in the two tentpoles.”

Although they didn’t offer any further specificity about the exact size of Downey’s deal, they said he is getting all kinds of “perks” as well like “private jet travel, dedicated security and a whole ‘trailer encampment.’” They also noted Downey is the highest-paid actor in the history of the MCU, and has earned between $500 and $600 million for his roles in the Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man franchises.

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Downey’s increasingly large paydays for his Marvel movies worked after his initial contract with the company ran out. He reportedly negotiated a $40 million salary for Captain America: Civil War, and a reported $75 million for each of the last two Avengers movies.

As for the Russos’ return, Variety said that was part of Downey’s deal as well; they were apparently the only directors he would work with on more Avengers movies. (The Russos previously directed Downey in Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.)

Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to open in theaters on May 1, 2026. Avengers: Secret Wars is scheduled to follow on May 7, 2027. If they’re paying just this much money for Downey and the Russos — before you add the salaries for any of the actual Avengers in the movie — these are going to surely be two of the more expensive productions in Hollywood history.