Kevin Feige Confirms Whether or Not Robert Downey Jr. Will Return to the MCU
In a recent Vanity Fair profile of Robert Downey Jr., Kevin Feige weighed in on the much-discussed return of Iron Man to Marvel's troubled cinematic universe. Marvel Studios is weathering waning box office and fan interest of late, with its most recent title, The Marvels, ending its box office run with the lowest theatrical gross in any MCU history. There have even been rumors that the studio might use its multiverse strategy to reintroduce departed fan-favorite characters, but at least in the case of Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, that door has closed.
“We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again,” Feige told VF about Downey’s death scene in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. “We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way.”
Downey himself wasn’t interviewed for the piece, as it was written amidst the recently resolved actor’s strike, but he admitted last summer that he’s “happy” to be done playing the superhero.
Endgame’s directors, Joe and Anthony Russo, surmised that returning would be too emotional for Downey. According to him, the actor didn’t even want to return to reshoot a moment of his final scene because he had already bid farewell to the cast and crew.
“We’d already said tearful goodbyes on the last day of shooting. Everybody had moved on emotionally,” Joe recalled. “We promised him it would be the last time we made him do it—ever.”
“That was a difficult thing for him to do, to come back,” Anthony said. “When he did come back, we were shooting on a stage directly opposite where he auditioned for Tony Stark. So his last line as Tony Stark was shot literally a couple hundred feet from his original audition that got him the role.”
Iron Man rejuvenated Downey Jr.’s career after more than a decade of scandals, arrests, and jail stints. Jon Favreau’s movie birthed both the MCU and the current template for most blockbuster movies, largely due to the charismatic performance of its star. Yet Downey Jr. was almost turned down for the role because of his past indiscretions. Favreau and Feige were dead-set on the star, though. It was other Marvel execs who they had to impress. Eventually, Downey agreed to a screen test.
“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,” Feige explained. “I wasn’t very good—and I’m still not great—at taking no for an answer. But I also don’t pound my chest to try to get my way. I try to figure out ways to make it as clear to other people why we should head in a direction. And that’s when the idea of a screen test came up.”
A version of Marvel without the star is almost unthinkable, something executives and crew members were quick to note as the series gained steam. “We used to joke and say that Robert was the head of the acting department because everybody there looked up to him,” Feige said. “He took them all under his wing, but not in a subservient sense. He just became their cheerleader.”
The Vanity Fair piece serves as an unofficial kick-off for Downey Jr.’s Oppenheimer Oscar campaign. Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic, in which the actor starred as Lewis Strauss, was Downey Jr.’s first major role since Endgame. It was hailed as something of a rebirth for the actor, who disappeared into the role in a way he hadn’t in decades.