2019’s Avengers: Endgame, the 22nd of the Marvel movies in order, marked the end of an era for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in many ways, chief among them being that it saw Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans departing the franchise. As far as the former goes, despite his character, Tony Stark, sacrificing his life to defeat Thanos, Downey has said he’d “happily” play Iron Man again. In fact, he reaffirmed this stance while he was discussing his connection to the popular Marvel hero in a recent interview.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Latest Comments On Iron Man
Downey sat down with his Home for the Holidays costar/director Jodie Foster for the newest episode of Variety’s Actors on Actors series. Towards the end of their conversation, she brought up how he’s done his fair share of “crazy, kind of unsafe stunts” and has “been in a suit,” which of course refers to his time as Iron Man. Foster then asked Downey if he’d want to “put the suit back on again for Tony Stark,” and he answered:
It’s crazily in my DNA. [It’s] probably the most 'like me character' strangely I’ve ever played even though he’s way cooler than I am. And, again, speaking of renaissance and coming full circle, I’ve become surprisingly open-minded to the idea.
Robert Downey Jr. played Tony Stark across ten Marvel movies, which will leave him tied with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine run once the upcoming Marvel movie Deadpool & Wolverine arrives at the end of July. With so many Tony Stark performances under his belt, one couldn’t fault the man for never wanting to revisit the character, but he remains open to doing so should the opportunity arises. As Downey noted, extra coolness aside, Tony is the character he’s played who’s most like him, so it’s not like revisiting the role would be a difficult undertaking.
How Tony Stark Could Potentially Return
As already earlier, Tony Stark died in Avengers: Endgame, so then how would Robert Downey Jr. be able to reprise Tony Stark in the MCU? Well, three possibilities come to mind outside of simply utilizing Tony for flashbacks, hallucinations, dreams. etc. The first is that he’s resurrected, because bringing characters back to life is something Marvel and DC do frequently in their comics. The downside to that option is that many MCU fans might feel undoing Tony’s death would diminish him harnessing the Infinity Stones as his final act in Endgame.
The second and perhaps likeliest option is that Downey would play a Tony Stark variant from another universe. After all, we’re deep into The Multiverse Saga, with projects like Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the aforementioned Deadpool & Wolverine exploring other realities in the Marvel multiverse. It’d surely be easy enough to introduce a Tony who’s still active as Iron Man in his universe or perhaps embarked down a different life path. With Avengers 5 and Avengers: Secret Wars on the way, either or both of these movies would be great platforms for Downey to return to the MCU.
Finally, there’s the upcoming Marvel TV show Ironheart. Considering that Riri Williams once had a Tony Stark-modeled AI running in her armor in the comics, maybe Downey would be game to do the same in the MCU, as all it would require of him was some voice work and maybe a little facial capture. Obviously if any of these three possibilities become reality, we’ll let you know. For now though, use your Disney+ subscription to stream all of Robert Downey Jr.’s previous MCU appearance.
