By most accounts, Robert Downey Jr. is done with the MCU. His time as Iron Man helped launch one of the biggest movie franchises of all time, earned him legions of adoring fans and millions upon millions of dollars. Since Stark’s death in Avengers: Endgame, some have hoped that he would one day return from the dead and reprise the role. It seems unlikely, but those people got quite a boost yesterday when Downey Jr. made a remark that could leave the door open to it happening.
During a live video conference for the Avengers: Endgame quarantine watch party, the Russo brothers spoke about their experience making the movie. Robert Downey Jr. also made a surprise appearance and revealed how he feels about it one year on from its release. At the end of their conversation, Joe Russo said: “Maybe we’ll have to do this again someday.” Downey Jr. then responded by saying: “The people will move us toward what they want.” You can see the exchange in the video at the link below at the 21-minute mark.
The most optimistic way of reading this is that Downey Jr. is certainly open to the idea of playing Tony Stark again. He obviously knows that many fans would go nuts if he announced a return, so this is a way of acknowledging their desires. The pessimistic way of looking at it, however, is that Downey Jr. is simply being polite and non-committal at the end of the friendly conversation. After all, if he’d answered Russo with a flat “that’s not going to happen,” it’d have looked pretty rude.
As far as I see it, there’s one plausible way of Downey Jr. returning. And that would be as some form of AI, or perhaps even an alternate version of Iron Man from the multiverse – both of which we’ve heard are options that are on the table right now. Especially with an Ironheart show said to be in development.
In fact, we’ve even heard that the actor has already made a deal for a return at some point down the road, though what exact form it would take is still unclear. Coming back as an AI seems like the best bet right now, but either way, we wouldn’t expect to see the hero back in the MCU for at least several years.