- A Marvel insider claims that Marvel plans to bring Robert Downey Jr. back to the MCU for an important meeting.
- Iron Man would interact with some of the heroes that were not available to
Disney in previous Marvel movies because the company did not have the rights to those characters. - Marvel now controls those superheroes, but Tony Stark died a heroic death at the end of Avengers: Endgame.
The reason why the Marvel movies work so well, and why epic films like Avengers: Endgame become massive successes upsetting the likes of Martin Scorsese, is the continuity. Each film or TV series tells a specific story that has a beginning and an end, but that film or TV series is just a cog in a much bigger machine. Like in the comics, there’s an overarching storyline that connects everything. The result is that crossovers like Avengers films or Captain America: Civil War are so satisfying. They’re filled with great Easter eggs, and you get to see these great characters interact for the first time and then work together. Infinity War is an amazing example of that.
Take those early meetings between Tony Stark, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange. Or how Hulk finds out there’s a Spider-Man and an Ant-Man. Or how the Guardians meet some of the Avengers, with each faction planning on defeating Thanos. And the list goes on. Such moments will continue in the near future, but some of our beloved Avengers are gone or retired. Iron Man, Black Widow, and Captain America (Steve Rogers version) won’t be able to meet-and-greet other superheroes who are just joining the MCU unless Marvel does something drastic. With that in mind, there’s a new rumor from a well-known insider who claims that Marvel plans to bring back Tony Stark for a specific interaction. Beware, some minor Marvel spoilers follow below.
Reports that Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) will rejoin the MCU despite being dead after the events in Endgame aren’t new, and they’ll probably never go away. Some of them are quite believable, offering Marvel options to bring back the Iron Man magic to the MCU, without stealing anything from the Endgame finale. Stark gave his life to save everyone else, in what was an amazing send-off for the character. The MCU will move beyond Tony’s death, and Phase 4 is all about meeting the new Avengers who will keep fighting against the bad guys.
But Phase 4 is also the phase where Marvel can afford to open the multiverse. It’s not just because of the Disney+ inclusion in Marvel’s MCU project; although the TV shows certainly help Marvel deliver richer, more nuanced Avengers stories that should make future crossovers even better. It’s the Fox purchase, combined with the new Sony deal, that will make the multiverse so exciting.
The rumored new deal with Sony is simple. Marvel and Sony will continue to milk Spider-Man, with each party advancing their own plans. It’s a mutually beneficial contract that will guarantee the success of both universes.
The more exciting of the two is the Fox purchase that allows Marvel to play with some of the comics’ best characters, including the X-Men, Deadpool, and the Fantastic Four. These are all heroes that Marvel could not touch before, even though they were Marvel characters. And if Marvel was able to create an amazing universe without these characters, what’s coming must be just incredible. Marvel already confirmed it’s working on projects that include the mutants, and we already knew that Deadpool would be coming to the MCU, as
🚨 RUMOR: Marvel Studios has plans
for Robert Downey Jr. to return to the
MCU and interact with Reed Richards.(via @DanielRPK) pic.twitter.com/dFkRjo9ZTD
— cosmic (@cosmic_marvel) January 24, 2021
This brings us to long-time Marvel leaker Daniel Richtman who said on his Patreon account that Marvel plans to bring Robert Downey Jr. back so that Tony Stark can interact with Reed Richards. As with any other rumor, there’s no guarantee any of this will happen, and Richtman doesn’t have a perfect track record.
However, there’s no denying that fans would absolutely love that Stark-Richards interaction mentioned here. And while we’re at it having Deadpool chat up to Stark would be just amazing.
Interestingly enough, Feige was asked during an interview with Cinema Blend ahead of the WandaVision premiere (above) whether he’s sad that Tony will not meed Reed. “I mean, there’s… you know, as the comics have always done, you inherit the continuity that is the point in time of that you’re about to tell a new story, and that’s where we are. So yes.”
“I spend more time thinking about being excited about seeing things than I do [spend being] sad about not seeing things,” he quickly added. That’s far from being a confirmation that Marvel is considering bringing Tony back to work with Reed. But Marvel is definitely aware of those lost moments.
Again, this is where the multiverse could help. We don’t necessarily need our Tony Stark to interact with Reed Richards. It could be a slightly similar Stark coming from whatever Earth version Richards is from. After all, the Loki and Gamora that populate the main MCU timeline aren’t ours either. The characters that grew under our eyes were brutally killed in Infinity War. We’re getting replacements with relatively blank slates from the alternate universes the Avengers visited and altered in Endgame. With that in mind, a meeting between Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic is absolutely doable.
