Robert Downey Jr. Says He’d “Happily” Return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Robert Downey Jr.‘s Marvel days may not always be a thing of the past. In a cover story for Esquire, Downey says that he’d “happily” don the iron suit once more and step back into the role of Tony Stark one day: “It’s too integral a part of my DNA.”

Fresh off his best supporting actor Oscar win for playing Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, Downey opened up about the potential of returning to the MCU. When asked if he’d ever consider returning, Downey didn’t seem to bat an eye. “Happily,” he said. “That role chose me.” Downey went on to shout out president of Marvel studios Kevin Feige, likening him to a casino. “I always say, Never, ever bet against Kevin Feige. It is a losing bet. He’s the house. He will always win.”

It makes sense that Downey would be enthusiastic about returning to the franchise. Downey starred in the first Marvel movie, Iron Man, in 2008, launching the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it. Since then, the MCU has gone on to become one of the biggest entertainment franchises in the world, spawning 33 films (including two Ironman sequels) and counting, and grossing over $32 billion dollars worldwide. As of late, Marvel has suffered a bit of a downturn with a string of critically and commercially disappointing films, like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels*—*so it makes sense that the powers that be would want to find a way for Downey and his beloved Tony Stark to return to the franchise.

But finding a dramaturgically sound rationale might be be the tricky part. After starring in ten Marvel films, Downey officially exited the MCU in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, where his beloved Tony Stark sacrificed his life to save his fellow Avengers. Downey’s exit was so perfect that Feige told Vanity Fair in December that actor will not return to the franchise. “We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again,” said Feige. “We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way.”

Perhaps Downey can engineer his own way for Tony Stark to return. In the Esquire cover story, Gwyneth Paltrow, who played Tony Stark’s love interest Pepper Pots in the Iron Man films, revealed that Downey would often improvise on set, refusing to say the scripted lines. “There would be this process of [director] Jon Favreau and Robert and I going into Jon’s trailer in the morning and Robert being like, ‘I’m not fucking saying these lines’ and throwing them out. And then live improv-ing either in the trailer or on the set,” she says. “So many of those famous lines were written ten minutes before we said them.” So while Paltrow can barely remember the fact that she was in the MCU, her Marvel paramour may already be improvising his return.