The president of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, firmly stated that Robert Downey Jr. will not return to his role as “Iron Man”
According to the UK’s Daily Mail on December 4 (Korean time), Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair why Robert Downey Jr. almost missed out on the role of Iron Man and why he will never return to this character.
In particular, Kevin Feige stated that studio executives hesitated to cast Robert Downey Jr. since he was convicted in 1996 for possession of heroin, cocaine, and a firearm. The Marvel board felt uneasy about entrusting future movies to an actor with legal issues in the past, he claimed.
However, Robert Downey Jr., which was filmed on September 25, 2006, ended up changing the executive minds, and the director of “Iron Man” strongly advocated for him.
Afterwards, Robert Downey Jr. appeared in a total of nine films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), playing the role of Tony Stark (Iron Man) until his final sacrifice in “Avengers: Endgame”.
However, even after Robert Downey Jr. exited Marvel, the possibility of his return has always been a topic of discussion among movie fans.
In response to this, Kevin Feige directly stated that they promised the actor “Avengers: Endgame” would be the last time they made him film for MCU.
“We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again”, Feige said, adding, “We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way”.
This basically confirms that Robert Downey Jr. will never return to the MCU franchise.
Meanwhile, the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) stands as the most successful film and TV franchise in history, earning revenue close to $30 billion over 15 years.
