Why Robert Downey Jr.'s new 'Avengers' payday is inciting backlash (2024)

Robert Downey Jr. announced at Comic-Con last weekend that he’ll be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to play Doctor Doom. People have mixed feelings about the casting — not to mention the actor’s huge paycheck.

Variety reported that Downey, who just won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Oppenheimer, is set to make more than $100 million to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He starred in the first film of the new superhero dynasty, 2008’s Iron Man, and has appeared as Tony Stark in 11 movies total. Downey is expected to play an entirely separate character — now the main villain rather than the lead Avenger — in the upcoming films Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

It’s not just Downey who’s coming back, either. The Russo Brothers, who directed the studio’s two most successful Avengers movies, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, will be back to work on the two future installments.

Marvel is notorious for jamming cameos from beloved superheroes and cast members into their movies, brushing off any recasting and repeat appearances as quirks of the complicated “multiverse.” The studio’s latest release, Deadpool & Wolverine, is loaded with cameos and just broke records — a relief after Marvel’s 2023 was tinged with box office failures and off-screen controversy.

Downey whipped off the Doctor Doom mask onstage at Comic-Con, revealing his identity to raucous applause. Some fans said online that the casting was “insanely badass” and a “bold creative swing.” Others said it’s “one of the worst and craziest castings,” “greedy,” proof “the genre is losing momentum.” His return was unexpected — in his 2024 BAFTA acceptance speech he joked that taking on a prestigious role was a “last-ditch effort to resurrect [his] dwindling credibility” after playing Iron Man for 12 years.

Downey’s massive deal with Marvel likely had something to do with his choice to return to the multiverse. It includes a private jet, a private security team and a “trailer encampment,” per Variety. His enormous payday struck a nerve with some members of the entertainment industry.

Tyler Scruggs, who worked as a costume production assistant on the set of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, went viral on X for posting about how little he was paid for the project.

He told Yahoo Entertainment that he’s been keeping track of the backlash he’s received for the post, which now has more than 20 million views, acknowledging that he knows he’s “not Robert Downey Jr.”

“I know he gets butts in seats,” Scruggs said. "Even a low-paying job brought some level of prestige. It looks good on a resume, but I can't eat or pay for my health care. I've never been at such a rock bottom in my life."

As a self-proclaimed “Marvel fanboy,” Scruggs said that the role was “an honor and a dream” at first. Over the last few years, he’s worked on multiple Marvel sets.

“Walking around the offices was like [being part of] a DVD special feature — I’m walking by all these iconic costumes every day with the greatest people in the world to ever do it,” he said. “But it’s hard to get berated over getting a Sweetgreen order wrong … when you’re making $800 per week when [someone else] is making $10,000.”

Scruggs said that he was happy to strike in solidarity with the Writers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild in 2023, but after the streaming bubble burst and fewer TV series and movies have gone into production, people in many areas of the industry have struggled to find work — from writers to visual effects artists to production assistants and so on.

“There's a deeply held belief by so many that there’s just one visionary or genius behind things, and they're unwilling to recognize or respect all the fingerprints that are actually on what we consume every day,” Scruggs said.

When people do get work, they’re considered lucky to be employed at all in the unstable industry. That doesn’t give workers a lot of power to negotiate their salaries, especially when so much of their budgets go toward star power and high-profile cameos.

“I knew how much money they were paying me, but I didn’t have any negotiating power,” Scruggs said. “It could have been such a magical experience, but it ended up being a nightmare because the people making decisions at the top don’t consider how they affect the people at the bottom.”

Yahoo Entertainment has reached out to Marvel for comment and will update this post when we hear back.