Robert Downey Jr. spent more than a decade making Tony Stark’s voice instantly recognizable, whether he was arguing with the Avengers or talking his way out of a situation he had usually made worse. His return as Victor von Doom gives Avengers: Doomsday the challenge of turning that familiarity into something threatening. For Japanese audiences, another actor will be part of that transformation.
Marvel’s international voice casts have their own history with these characters. Viewers who followed the Japanese dubs grew up hearing a different performer deliver Stark’s jokes and his final goodbye, making the casting behind Downey’s next role significant in its own right. The latest announcement acknowledges that history while bringing a veteran of anime and video games into the franchise.
Toshiyuki Morikawa will voice Downey’s Doctor Doom in the Japanese dub of Avengers: Doomsday. Downey announced the casting himself in a video message released by Marvel Japan, alongside a Japanese-language trailer. Morikawa is best known to many gamers as Sephiroth in Final Fantasy 7, giving him considerable experience playing a villain whose arrival tends to make everybody’s situation worse.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which MCU Villain Do You Align With? Killmonger · Namor · Zemo · Thanos
Eight honest questions about how you actually are: what you do about something unfair, how long you will wait for what you want, who you are really loyal to, how easily you let a thing go. Answer them and we will tell you which one of these four you have more in common with than you would like. Every one of them thinks they are the reasonable person in the room.
🐆Killmonger(Black Panther)
🔱Namor(Wakanda Forever)
🎭Zemo(Civil War)
🧤Thanos(Infinity War)
01
How do you react to something you think is unfair? All four of these men started here.
02
How long will you wait for something you want? Patience separates these four more than anything else.
03
Who are you actually loyal to? Answer for the real one, not the polite one.
04
How do you win an argument? Everybody has one method and uses it every time.
05
How easily do you let something go? This is the question that makes villains out of people.
06
What do you think about breaking the rules? Nobody on this list has ever felt guilty about it.
07
What do people say about you behind your back? You already know which one it is.
08
What would you do with real power? Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your villain.
The Case Is Made You Align With…
Four villains, and four arguments the films were honest enough to
actually let them make. Here is the one you lean towards, the part of it that holds up, and the
exact point where it stops holding up.
Black Panther · Marvel Studios · 2018
Erik Killmonger
You align with the one who was right about the problem and wrong
about the solution. Killmonger is the most persuasive villain Marvel has produced because
the film never pretends his anger came from nowhere.
You notice who was abandoned and you cannot let it go, which is a moral instinct before
it is anything else.
His argument lands because Wakanda really did watch and do nothing, and the film makes
T’Challa admit it out loud.
Where it breaks is the method, since a man who was failed by power decided the answer
was to hold more of it.
Michael B. Jordan plays him as somebody performing certainty over grief, which is why
the last scene of that film still works.
Wakanda Forever · Marvel Studios · 2022
Namor
You align with the protector, which is the most understandable
and most dangerous position on this list. Namor is not chasing power or revenge, he is doing
whatever keeps his people hidden, and he has been doing it for centuries.
Your loyalty has a hard border around it, and everything inside that border matters far
more to you than anything outside it.
Talokan is the best realised world Marvel has built since Wakanda, and the film makes
you understand exactly what he is guarding.
His logic is airtight right up until it requires somebody else’s people to pay for his
people’s safety.
He would rather be feared by the surface world forever than trust it once, and history
has given him reasons.
Captain America: Civil War · 2016
Helmut Zemo
You align with the patient one, the only man on this list with no
powers, no army and no hurry. Zemo lost his family in Sokovia and then spent years working
out that you do not fight the Avengers, you introduce them to each other’s secrets.
You go quiet when you are hurt, and the quiet is where the thinking happens.
Zemo is the only MCU villain who completely won, and he did it with a notebook, a plan
and a great deal of self control.
His grief is real, and the film is careful never to let you forget that he started as an
ordinary man with a family.
Where it fails is the cost, since taking apart the people who hurt him meant hurting a
great many people who did not.
Avengers: Infinity War · 2018
Thanos
You align with the one who decided the answer was arithmetic.
Thanos is not angry and not grieving in any way he will admit to, he simply reached a
conclusion and never once revisited it, which is precisely what makes him frightening.
You are capable of holding a position that costs you everything, and you would call that
conviction rather than stubbornness.
Infinity War works because it is structured as his film, with a goal, a journey and a
sacrifice, and the heroes are the obstacle.
The flaw in the plan is not the cruelty, it is that he never seriously considered a
single alternative to it.
Josh Brolin plays him tired rather than triumphant, which is the choice that turned a
purple giant into a real character.
‘Final Fantasy’ Fans Already Know Doctor Doom’s New Voice
Sephiroth in ‘Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’Image via Square Enix
Morikawa voices Sephiroth in the Japanese versions of Final Fantasy 7 RemakeandFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth, helping carry the character from a familiar gaming antagonist into a more intimate, persistent threat. So much of Sephiroth’s hold over Cloud comes through their conversations. He intrudes on moments when Cloud is already vulnerable, speaking with a familiarity that makes the encounter worse. Morikawa’s delivery is a considerable part of why those scenes feel so invasive. His Sephiroth can make Cloud unravel with a few calmly delivered words, often sounding entirely comfortable while everyone else is having the worst day of their lives. That is an appealing quality to bring to Doctor Doom, a character who rarely needs convincing that he is the most important person in the room.
His resume also extends to Dante in Devil May Cry, Yoshikage Kira in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Kagaya Ubuyashiki in Demon Slayer, and Enel, Hatchan, and Scopper Gaban in One Piece,among many others. Dante alone should reassure anyone wondering whether Morikawa can move beyond Sephiroth’s measured intimidation. The demon hunter’s swagger and irreverence demand a very different performance, giving the actor another connection to fans who have spent years with Japanese action games.
Avengers: Doomsday opens in theaters on December 18, 2026.
