It’s hard to think of an actor who has managed his career better after leaving the franchise than Robert Downey Jr. That makes his announced return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe — where he’ll play the villainous Doctor Doom in the upcoming “Avengers” sequel, as announced this week — all the more surprising.
Downey’s Iron Man debuted in the MCU in 2008, and the death of his character Tony Stark in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame was a climax of sorts. Endgame had been the culmination of all Marvel stories up until that point: Downey’s eventual departure meant that this particular set of stories, in which the cynical defense contractor sat at the emotional center, was over. (Downey seemed so out of character that when he announced his return on Instagram, his on-screen romantic partner Gwyneth Paltrow commented, “I don’t get it, am I a villain now?”)
But what immediately followed his departure was a major misstep, as his film Dolittle flopped critically and commercially in early 2020. It was an attempt to start a franchise, and a cynical one: Downey has since said he was “too excited about the deal, not excited enough about the execution,” and that after the film “we had a reset of priorities.” That reset led to him taking a supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer , for which he won an Oscar earlier this year, and executive producing and appearing in HBO’s bold and somewhat risky literary adaptation The Sympathizer , which is currently an Emmy nominee and a frontrunner. Later this year, Downey will make his Broadway debut, not in a safe revival of a familiar classic but in a new play by Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar — who in his previous work has not been one to play it safe.
All of this speaks to a curious actor with a wide range, looking to capitalize on the credit he’s earned for making a lot of people a lot of money. Downey’s success during the Marvel era—his fame as Iron Man was so great that his other films, from Due Date to the Sherlock Holmes movies, were also solid hits—can make you forget how far he’s come. Iron Man wasn’t just the start of a huge franchise; it completed a full-scale comeback for Downey, who had climbed his way out of career purgatory and struggled with addiction. A man who by the mid-2000s seemed like a top-tier movie star was, when Iron Man was released, a risky choice.
A return to Marvel could be seen in a number of ways. One is a homecoming of sorts: Downey’s potential return has been the subject of speculation since he left the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2019. In a conversation with Actors on Actors with Jodie Foster this spring, Downey said that Tony Stark is “crazy in my DNA. He’s probably the most similar character I’ve ever played, even though he’s cooler than me.” Notably, Downey isn’t playing Stark (though the connections between the two characters, in a franchise increasingly marked by multiverse variations, can be parsed by those keen to delve into the legacy). But one can understand the appeal of returning to a place that feels comfortable and nostalgic, a place where one gets to be themselves, only cooler.
It should also be noted that Downey’s return will help Marvel out of its predicament: The announced Avengers sequel was set to feature Jonathan Majors’ Kang, so much so that the film, now called Avengers: Judgment Day, was initially announced as Avengers: Kang Dynasty. (Marvel parted ways with Majors last year, hours after he was convicted of assaulting and molesting his ex-girlfriend.) Before the huge box office success of Deadpool & Wolverine last weekend—which owed much of its success to its sarcastic mockery of Marvel tropes—the studio’s fortunes seemed to be faltering, with one film after another (and TV shows, too) met with muted enthusiasm and disappointing returns. Downey is a nexus of what fans might call Marvel’s golden age.
Maybe Downey also sees an opportunity, and not just to make money that could fund future Broadway stints and quirky TV series. His first Marvel movie was based on a character Downey had established since the early days of his career: the quick-witted Tony Stark, a talkative con artist who at first seems to have a passing fling with morality only to reveal the depths of the soul beneath. This is Downey in “Less Than Zero,” from “Home for the Holidays,” from “Ally McBeal.” It’s the kind of work he was doing back in “Zodiac,” which came out just a year before “Iron Man” supercharged his career.
Since reorienting himself after “Dolittle,” Downey has appeared in two projects that have asked him to use slightly different skills. In “Oppenheimer,” Downey’s quiet, sharp wit veers toward spite and resentment. In “The Sympathizer,” he oscillates between styles, from fantastical allusions to aggressive dominance, playing four different characters (talk about a multiverse!). All of Downey’s characters in this show represent the white American power structure that the show’s Vietnamese heroine (Hoa Xuande) must confront.
All of this, potentially, could work toward something we haven’t seen from Downey in a big-budget show yet, something beyond the Tony Stark persona. Returning to the glories of the past, when “Judgment Day” comes out, could feel like a step back, a way to avoid the more challenging material that Downey seemed committed to. Or it could give the long-running franchise a welcome boost of energy. Downey has already revitalized his career, twice—first in 2008, when his and Marvel’s fortunes soared together, and then in the 2020s, when he forged his own path. Maybe he has a little magic left to spare.
