Robert Downey Jr. was the face of the MCU for eleven years and laid the foundations for the shared universe with Iron Man. The actor has played the role for more than a decade and is finally getting his due as a performer for his role in last year’s biopic Oppenheimer. The actor recently won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for the role.
Downey Jr. has been long rumored to return to the MCU as Tony Stark a.k.a Iron Man. Though Marvel president Kevin Feige had insisted that they would not tarnish his heroic ending in Avengers: Endgame, Downey Jr.’s statement on Rob Lowe’s ‘Literally’ podcast indicated that the conversations may happen sometime soon.
Also read: Robert Downey Jr’s $251 Million Worth Flop Movie Played a Crucial Role in His Oppenheimer Success
Robert Downey Jr. Hinted At A Marvel Return
Robert Downey Jr. had his final MCU appearance in 2019’s magnum opus Avengers: Endgame, where the character had a heroic demise after defeating Thanos. The actor had laid the foundations of the MCU with the franchise’s first film Iron Man and had starred in nine films in the franchise. He also had his own trilogy, with two directed by Jon Favreau.
The MCU has been on a downward spiral for the past two years, with the franchise putting out some of their lowest-rated media such as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Secret Invasion, and The Marvels. According to Variety, the creative team at Marvel was planning on getting the OG Avengers back to the franchise due to their plan of positioning Jonathan Majors’ Kang as the main antagonist was in trouble at the time due to his arrest.
Robert Downey Jr. seemingly hinted at his possible return to the MCU when he appeared on the ‘Literally’ podcast hosted by Rob Lowe. According to Variety, the Oppenheimer star reportedly received a phone call in the middle of the podcast, which promoted Lowe to ask, “Is that some Marvel s*it? Are you going to break some stories here?”. Downey Jr. replied, “Not just yet.”
Although, Lowe tried to continue on the topic of his return to the franchise and joked about negotiating for him to make sure he earns a ‘gazillion dollars’, Downey Jr. remained tight-lipped about the rumors. It was rumored that Marvel was hoping to get the OG Avengers to return for the cinematic team-up film Avengers: Secret Wars.
Kevin Feige Stated That Iron Man Would Not Return
Robert Downey Jr.’s inclusion into the MCU was one of the first big battles that producer and Marvel president Kevin Feige had to fight to realize his vision for the franchise. Downey Jr. at the time was making a comeback after being arrested multiple times for drug possession and no studio was willing to take the risk and put him in charge of a huge franchise.
However, Feige and Iron Man director Jon Favreau reportedly fought for the actor’s casting and pushed him with a brilliant screen test he gave for the role. Feige told Variety,
“It purely came down to the Marvel board being nervous at putting all of their chips in their future films on somebody who famously had those legal troubles in the past. I wasn’t very good — and I’m still not great — at taking no for an answer.”
The star then convinced the board through his screen test and the rest is history. Iron Man was a huge success and launched the MCU into a full-fledged universe that culminated in a climactic cinematic event with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The films gave Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark a fitting goodbye. Feige said of his potential return,
“We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again. We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way.”
Robert Downey Jr. mentioned on Rob Lowe’s Literally podcast that he never got the due credit for his performance in the Marvel films due to the genre and that they were some of his best works.
