SPOILERS AHEAD FOR MARVEL’S “AVENGERS: ENDGAME”
Marvel Studios VP of Production & Development Stephen Broussard says that a potential return of Robert Downey Jr. to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is ‘no longer on the table’.
Downey Jr. said farewell to Tony Stark with a heroic death in 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame”. Since then there has been rumors Downey Jr. would reprise the role as a variant of Stark in some of the upcoming MCU Multiverse shenanigans be it one of the “Avengers” films or the “Armor Wars” movie or “Ironheart” series in some way.
Downey Jr.’s last commented on a potential MCU return back in 2021, saying he was happily done with the MCU now but left the possibility open, saying: “never say never”.
Speaking to io9, Broussard discussed how the recently finished Phase 4 if the MCU was all about “a new generation stepping to the forefront” and that meant moving on from the first MCU heroes:
“I think one of the meta-narratives of Phase Four was about new characters. It was about new people stepping into mantles. If you look at, like, Cassie [Lang in ‘Quantumania’] getting a suit and Kate Bishop [in ‘Hawkeye’], new characters being introduced like Jack in Werewolf by Night.
After these first 10 years of Marvel storytelling, torches are being passed, like with Robert Downey Jr. no longer being [on the] table and stuff like that. So it was kind of like a new generation stepping to the forefront which, again, has always happened in the comics.”
Similarly Chris Evans’ Captain America and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow also likely fit into that ‘off the table’ description with both having departed the MCU.
However, three years from now with the release of “Avengers: Secret Wars” on May 1st 2026 which is expected to mash up as many Marvel screen heroes as it can – who can guarantee at this point who will or won’t be back.
