RDJ’s Doctor Doom Casting Proves Hollywood Still Can’t Handle Romani Representation

Like many marginalized groups, pop culture clumsily fails at representation or writes Romani people off entirely. The latter is certainly the case with Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom casting in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, proving Hollywood still hasn’t overcome this terrible trend.

The Romani people aren’t magical creatures, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at TV and movies. When it comes to depicting the Roma, Hollywood can’t seem to imagine anything but crystal balls and magic potions.

Unfortunately, that’s become the favored stereotype. If the Roma aren’t endlessly staring into crystal balls, then they’re depicted as thieving, pickpocketing, and abducting children. Hollywood is so busy reducing Romani people to harmful caricatures that it ignores the fact that they are an actual ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin.

Doctor Doom is Romani in Marvel Comics

Victor von Doom is from the fictional Eastern European country of Latveria in the comics, and some storylines, like those in Books of Doom, go in depth about his Roma upbringing. It’s an important aspect of the character that has never been portrayed in previous live-action outings, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe has chosen to ignore it yet again.

RDJ’s casting is controversial for a lot of reasons, with the most obvious being that it’s an easy money grab. Nowadays, Downey’s portrayal of Tony Stark is more famous than the comics that birthed him. He has already played a major role in the MCU, so bringing him back as another character feels a bit … uninspired (even if Stark and Doom have shared history in some of the source material). More importantly, it continues the MCU’s bad habit of whitewashing characters.

Doom is far from the first Marvel character to experience whitewashing during the jump from page to screen. Tilda Swinton’s portrayal of the Ancient One caused quite a bit of controversy upon Doctor Strange’s release, and Elizabeth Olsen’s casting as the Scarlet Witch faced similar backlash for ignoring her Roma roots. At this point, a casting decision like Marvel’s take on Doom isn’t surprising, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing.

In the source material, a good chunk of Doom’s story explores his family’s persecution for being Roma, which massively influences his motivations to rule the world and protect the people of Latveria. To have a white man navigating those difficulties onscreen just doesn’t make sense. Thus, it will likely be tossed aside in favor of a different backstory. As many fans have mentioned, RDJ is likely playing a variant of Doctor Doom, not THE Doctor Doom.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that the MCU has erased all Roma representation in its adaptations so far, from the current situation with Doom to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. If they’re planning to do better with an eventual non-RDJ version of Doom, this is starting off on the wrong foot at best.

Pop culture can’t get away from Romani stereotypes

It’s very likely that when addressing Romani portrayals in pop culture, most people think of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Disney’s 1996 adaption of the Victor Hugo novel, specifically, has cemented many ideas about how Romani people look and behave. The film itself is dark, tackling heavy themes like genocide and religious prosecution from an angle that still works for children. And while it does a decent job of highlighting the Romani people’s oppression, it simultaneously reduces its supporting cast to caricatures.

The Romani women are given big noses and less appealing attributes, whereas Esmeralda’s facial features that conform to societal beauty standards, coupled with her dark skin, reinforce the idea that she is an exotic temptress. While the movie’s version has these issues, it’s unfortunately still an improvement over Hugo’s novel, which implied that Esmeralda was only “good” and “beautiful” because she was actually a white woman stolen by the Romani people.

Romani women, in particular, bear the brunt of these stereotypes. A quick skim through the X thread below proves Hollywood thinks Romani women only have aspirations to be fortune tellers and mystics or seductresses who only want to get you alone to steal your wallet. The entanglement runs so deep that the slur “gypsy” has become synonymous with Romani women, specifically.

Truth be told, there aren’t many positive depictions of Romani people in entertainment. While Doctor Doom is a villain, his motivations are complex, and he’s one of the most formidable forces in the Marvel Universe. More importantly, his inclusion in the MCU will earn him even more recognition in the pop culture zeitgeist. If a Romani actor had portrayed him, it would have offered a chance to avoid more Roma erasure in media.