As we all know by now, without Robert Downey Jr. there simply wouldn’t be an MCU. What began as an Iron Man movie in 2008, went on to spawn the entire MCU. Both audiences and critics loved his performance and his death in Avengers: Endgame signaled the end of an era to many.

So at the very least, the man can take credit for quite a decent amount of the MCU’s still ongoing success. In fact, fans loved him so much that they still want him back. And, if a scooper is to be believed, then Tony Stark’s Iron Man might be coming back to the MCU, just not in the way you would expect.

Tony Stark Can Return As An Alternate Version Of Himself

Scooper Mikey Sutton is now claiming that Marvel Studios is developing plans to bring Robert Downy Jr. back as Iron Man without resurrecting him. The scooper says that we might see him in the Secret Wars arc, where our heroes will be traveling to parallel universes. It’s in one such world where we will get to see Tony Stark again.

The Tony Stark we will see here didn’t die in a battle against Thanos, and so Reed Richards will try to recruit him for his Illuminate group. But know that this won’t be the Stark we love and have known till now. In fact, this version wouldn’t have become Iron Man at all. So this little detail might indicate that Tony will be more amoral or even ruthless in this version.

Also, he will have a relationship with Spider-Man. But this Spider-Man won’t be Peter Parker. Instead, it will be Miles Morales. As per Sutton, nothing is set in stone since the entire idea hinges on Robert Downey Jr. This means that will only happen if he signs off on it.

Will Robert Downey Jr. Return As Tony Stark Again?

So the question is- do we see Robert Downey Jr. doing this project? Realistically, we don’t. After all, his current projects and business ventures have shown how much he wants to diversify from the MCU stuff he has been engaged in for a decade. Also, his character got the best ending possible. So he might not want to come back as an alternate version to ruin that.

However, if it’s a small appearance, then Downey might do it. So it’s not set in stone that he won’t do it. Also, if not Secret Wars, then Tony (the version we know) might show up in Ironheart. Along with this, we need to say that if anyone had told us even a year ago that Michael Keaton will show up as Batman again in the DCEU, then we wouldn’t have believed it as well. So stranger things have definitely happened.

Right now, as with every rumor, it’s a game of waiting and watching to see what happens. However, we certainly do hope that Robert Downey Jr. isn’t done playing Iron Man forever just yet.

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