Iron Man is returning to the MCU without Robert Downey Jr.


Avengers: Endgame saw the upsetting death of Tony Stark, the face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, it looks like the Invincible Iron Man will be making his return, just without the iconic Robert Downey Jr.

Iron Man returns without Robert Downey Jr.

In a report by Giant Freaking Robot, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will soon see an all-new Iron Man take the screen. Allegedly, Marvel is looking to replace Robert Downey Jr. with a new, younger actor for the next-generation of MCU cinema.

The report states that Marvel is planning to reintroduce Iron Man in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars. If the claims are true, Marvel will be using an all-new actor instead of relying on Downey Jr. to reprise his role.

With Downey Jr. in his late 50s, and the two Avengers movies being years away, it makes sense for Marvel to recast. Furthermore, we’re still not quite sure what the role entails.

The report claims that Marvel is looking to be quite thorough in their casting. This is because they plan to merge this Iron Man into the main MCU to have an all-new line of films. While no actor has been cast yet, Stranger Thing’s Joseph Quinn is said to be in the running.

While it will be sad to see Downey Jr. replaced, it’s worth noting that this is a new version of the character. After all, different universe, different backstory, different character, right?

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What will this version do?

Out of everything, the main question on our minds is what this version of Tony Stark will do. Coming from a different universe, this Tony Stark may have completely different ideals to our version. With this in mind, Marvel could be following a classic storyline.

With Kang the Conquerer as the main villain, we could see a Tony Stark that’s manipulated to be a villain. In one storyline, Stark ends up doing Kang’s bidding, leading to catastrophic consequences.

This would be a fun storyline to see play out. Furthermore, doing it with a new version of Stark doesn’t erase the sacrifice that our main version gave in Avengers: Endgame.

Nevertheless, it is a bit on the sad side. Fans were hoping to see Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man again through multiverse shenanigans. However, it’s probably best this way.

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