Credit: Marvel StudiosRumor has it that Robert Downey Jr. may be heading back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe – but sans Iron Man armor.
We’re not sure about you, but we’re still mourning Iron Man. While it’s been five years since Downey Jr. exited the MCU in Avengers: Endgame (2019), his presence is still very much felt in the film series (primarily because it just hasn’t hit the same since he left).
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Before his exit, Downey Jr. was undeniably the franchise’s MVP. His journey began with the release of Iron Man (2008), a film that not only launched the MCU but also revitalized Downey Jr.’s career. Portraying the genius billionaire inventor who becomes a superhero, Downey brought charisma, wit, and depth to a character who was, let’s face it, a B-list Marvel superhero at best before hitting the big screen.
Iron Man‘s critical and commercial success paved the way for the interconnected universe of Marvel films that followed. Downey Jr. sat at the heart of it all, with Tony Stark the driving force behind gathering The Avengers – and ultimately paying the biggest sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame to defeat the big-bad of the Infinity Saga, Thanos (Josh Brolin), once and for all.
The MCU is now deep into its second saga – the Multiverse Saga – but it’s no secret that this has failed to live up to its predecessor.
While the franchise has produced the odd hit since Endgame, such as Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (2023), it’s also set a string of disappointing records, such as its biggest box office bomb with The Marvels (2023) and achieving its first Razzie nomination with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023).
Both Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and Disney CEO Bob Iger have made it very clear that they’re aware of Marvel’s ongoing issues, with a lot of it pinned on the “quantity over quality” problem that came with producing Marvel TV shows for Disney+.
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With that in mind, the studio has reportedly picked apart its upcoming releases to try and set its canon back on track. Daredevil: Born Again, for example, went straight back to the drawing board – despite having already started filming – while Captain America: Brave New World (2025) just wrapped up a rather expensive string of reshoots that allegedly had a major impact on the film’s plot.
Much attention has also been paid to Marvel’s tentpole franchise, The Avengers. Two Avengers films are on the horizon – one that needs a name change since the studio ditched Kang (or rather his actor, Jonathan Majors) and Avengers: Secret Wars.
We’ve heard plenty of reports about how Marvel plans to make both films cinematic events à la Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame, with a huge part of their game plan being to feature an even bigger cast.
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Thanks to the nature of the Multiverse, this cast has unlimited potential. We’ve already seen alternate versions of Spider-Man appear onscreen in Spider-Man: No Way Home, as well as other alternate superheroes in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). We’ll likely see the same in the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).
However, if even a fraction of the rumors about Secret Wars are accurate, this lineup could be even bigger – and wilder – than anything we’ve ever seen before.
The latest detail to leak onto the internet relates to Robert Downey Jr., whose return has long been theorized for the film. Some have claimed that he’ll play a straightforward, alternate version of Iron Man. However, industry insider Jeffrey Sneider claims that he’s heard that Downey Jr. will play someone else entirely – and appear sooner than expected.
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Speaking of Doctor Doom, there’s still no word yet about his casting in ‘Fantastic Four,’ as insiders denied my inquiry about Robert Downey Jr., who I was told might come back as an alternate-universe Tony Stark who becomes Doctor Doom instead of Iron Man. It seems far-fetched, yes, but I figured that if there was any hope of Downey coming back, there’d have to be a new wrinkle for him to play. So, for now, we continue to wait…
While Sneider does say that the rumor was denied, it’s interesting that he ever heard the rumor in the first place.
There are always lots of moving pieces for both Marvel and its upcoming projects. However, Fantastic Four starts filming on July 29 – AKA in 10 days – and it is surprising that we haven’t heard who’s playing Doctor Doom yet. There is also a storyline where Tony Stark becomes Doctor Doom in the comics known as “Infamous Iron Man.”
Downey Jr. has been pretty receptive to the idea of returning to Marvel in the past. He did tell actress Jodie Foster that he was “open-minded to the idea” in an Actors on Actors interview for Variety, as well as stating that “it’s just crazily in my DNA.”
However, he’s also stressed that he thinks Tony’s storyline ended in the right place – as have Joe and Anthony Russo, AKA the Russo Brothers, who directed Infinity War and Endgame and are allegedly in talks to return for the next two Avengers films.
Interestingly, this isn’t even the first time Downey Jr. – who won Best Supporting Actor at the 2024 Academy Awards for the role of Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer (2023) – has been linked to Doctor Doom. In a video celebrating the 15th anniversary of Iron Man in 2023, director Jon Favreau revealed that he was previously in talks to play the villain in Tim Story’s Fantastic Four (2005).
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If Downey Jr. returned as a totally different character, that would allow his perfect exit to remain intact while also giving him a way back into the franchise, similar to how some believe Captain America actor Chris Evans may play an alternate version of the Human Torch in Deadpool & Wolverine. (Fingers crossed).
Even if the insiders that spoke to Sneider are correct and Downey Jr. isn’t playing Doctor Doom, it’s still worth thinking about other ways he could return to Marvel without returning to the Tony Stark we know and love (or, to be more accurate, knew and loved, past tense).
We’d personally relish the chance to see Downey Jr. take on an antagonist role after a decade of playing the super hero – and we don’t think it’s a massive stretch to say that a lot of other fans would, too.
How would you like Robert Downey Jr. to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Share your craziest theories and ideas with Inside the Magic!