Having kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2008 with Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. has been the face of the beloved franchise for well over a decade now. As such, it only makes sense that fans have developed a deep emotional connection to the character, a relationship that was epitomized by his tragic conclusion in Avengers: Endgame.
If you’ll recall, after snapping his fingers and saying “I am Iron Man,” Tony Stark sacrificed himself to stop Thanos once and for all. It was a poignant and perfect moment, but understandably, fans are still not over it. The sadness felt from losing Iron Man is still present even after all these months and many wouldn’t mind seeing him again in the MCU in some form.
Already, there’ve been persistent rumors that he could return as an AI in the in-development Ironheart show, but we’ve heard that Marvel may take things one step further and actually semi-resurrect Tony in a future MCU movie or TV series. Allow us to explain.
Right now, this remains only an idea and isn’t something that is 100% going to happen, but sources close to WGTC – the same ones who told us Taskmaster will be the villain in Black Widow, and that the Inhumans are being rebooted, both of which we now know to be true – say that the studio may take a few cues from the comics and bring Robert Downey Jr. back to portray Tony in the flesh, not just as an AI.
How would this work? Well, again, taking inspiration from the source material, the idea is to have Stark’s AI create a new body for itself, a body that would be identical in appearance to the old one, thus allowing Marvel to bring back RDJ in the role. So, they wouldn’t necessarily be resurrecting the original Tony. But rather, it’d be his AI placed into a new body.
It’s an interesting idea, to be sure, but given that it could render the emotional resonance of Endgame moot, it’d be a bit surprising if they actually go ahead with it. For what it’s worth, though, our sources claim Marvel doesn’t mind cheapening Tony’s death like this but RDJ himself may feel differently. So again, this isn’t confirmed to be happening just yet and is merely an idea being discussed internally at the studio. And given that this intel comes to us from the same sources who also told us a Thunderbolts project is in development, which was just confirmed this week, we have no reason to doubt it.
Tell us, though, would you be alright if they brought back Iron Man like this? Sound off down below and share your thoughts.