Robert Downey Jr. has “done all I could” with Iron Man

It sounds like Iron Man is out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for good…unless he shows up in the new MCU recap series Legends on Disney+.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe would likely not be anywhere near as successful as it is today without star Robert Downey Jr.’s iconic portrayal of Iron Man. He left the franchise in 2019 after over a decade in the suit, and there’s already talk of him returning, despite his heroic death in Avengers: Endgame.

However, Downey Jr. seems to think his time with the character is well and truly over. “Playing Tony/Iron Man was hard and I dug deep,” he told the Hindustan Times. “I had an incredible 10-year run that was creatively satisfying.”

"I’ve done all I could with that character and can do other things now. Now, being middle-aged, you start looking at the back nine and realize this is all part of the journey, and things end. I am fortunate and eternally grateful to have wound up where I have."

Okay, so he might not be playing Tony anymore, but he does have some interesting technological hobbies that Iron Man surely would have approved of. “I’m doing tech-based climate solutions with my FootPrint Coalition and my technology focused YouTube original, The Age of A.I.”

“I believe in aesthetic distance. I’m not Tony,” he added, in case anyone was getting confused.

While his time as Iron Man is over, we’ll still see plenty more of Downey Jr. onscreen. He’ll reprise his role as Sherlock Holmes in 2021, and there are even unconfirmed rumors that he’ll have an Iron Man cameo in Black Widow, but it’s best not to get our hopes up.

But we may spend more time with Iron Man in a new Disney+ show called Marvel Studios: Legends, which catches fans up on the history of the company’s iconic characters. According to Marvel itself, the series “celebrates and codifies what has come before. Revisit the epic heroes, villains and moments from across the MCU in preparation for the highly anticipated stories still to come.”

The show begins by bringing us up to date on Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) in preparation for their show WandaVision. Both WandaVision and Legends will premiere exclusively to Disney+ on January 15, 2021.

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