Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr. Remains ‘Open-Minded’ to MCU Return

Iron Man may live again in the Marvel Cinematic Universe if Robert Downey Jr. gets his way.

During an interview with Jodie Foster for Variety ‘s Actors on Actors series, Downey admitted that he has grown more open to the idea of returning as Tony Stark/Iron Man in the years since Avengers: Endgame was released.

“It’s just crazily in my DNA. Probably the most like-me character I’ve ever played, even though he’s way cooler than I am. I’ve become surprisingly open-minded to the idea,” the actor shared. “Between Nyad and [Night Country] and, for me, Oppenheimer and then Sympathizer, it really is crazy because we look pretty good. I was actually looking at the stills we were taking, making sure: ‘Do we still look kind of OK?’ I’m like, ‘We look pretty good.'”

Iron Man is still dead in the MCU

If Downey did return as Tony Stark in the MCU, it would most likely not be as the main Iron Man that fans know and love. That version of the superhero died after using the Infinity Stones to snap away Thanos and his army during the final battle in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. The crossover movie ended with Stark’s funeral.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige also indicated in December 2023 that they had no plans to resurrect the popular Avenger in an upcoming feature, saying, “We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way.”

However, Downey could appear as a multiversal variant in a future MCU project. While Iron Man hasn’t appeared in live-action since Endgame, variants of the superhero have made sporadic appearances in the animated series, What If…? , voiced by Mick Wingert.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home have already shown that variants can look and act very different from their main MCU counterpart. This would free Downey up creatively to give a vastly different performance as Iron Man than the one he previously gave in the MCU.

Marvel fans can watch all 10 of Downey’s MCU film appearances, from Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame, on Disney+ .