Robert Downey Jr. Seems Finished With MCU and Iron Man on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’
Robert Downey Jr. has portrayed the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Tony Stark for over 10 years since Iron Man’s premiere in 2008. Now, with Avengers: Endgame bringing his story to its conclusion, fans have been wondering whether that’s the last they’ll be seeing of Iron Man in the MCU.
During a recent conversation with podcaster Joe Rogan, Downey seemed to confirm that he’s finished with the MCU and Iron Man, sharing how it feels to have that part of his life come to an end.
Robert Downey Jr. tells Joe Rogan he’s likely done with MCU
During his conversation with Downey on The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan got right down to the question on every MCU fan’s mind.
“Is the door to Iron Man totally closed because I don’t believe it is,” Rogan asked Downey. “You guys can go through time now. There was, you know, you’ve already opened up that door.”
Downey replied, “Let me ask you a question. If I picked the jersey back up and put it on, wouldn’t you feel a little bit like, ‘Aw crap.'”
Downey later added, “To me, starting up again is off the table. I feel like I’ve done all I can with that character. There would have to be a super compelling argument and a series of events that made it obvious. But the other thing is, I want to do other stuff.”
However, it seemed as though Rogan could easily envision Iron Man coming back.
“If they opened up this time machine and you popped out, I just imagine the moment where everyone goes f*cking crazy,” he told Downey. “It would be amazing! I would love that, but I would also love you hanging it up.”
How Robert Downey Jr. feels now that he’s done
This is a big change for Downey. The star has been working with the MCU for years, and with his role complete surely things will be different in his life.
“It’s 2020, and … I keep thinking, ‘See clearly,'” Downey said. “See clearly even if your vision is going. And it’s difficult because I feel like we all just get buffeted by feelings or ego or fears or little chips of resentments, or intuitions that are tied to something higher but you think is out of your reach.”
The star continued, “So it was a perfect time, and I got to go have dinner with a bunch of the Marvel folks last night and kind of just have a little bit of extra closure. … And I was like, ‘Woah!’ This was kind of like a really big cultural thing.”
“We were there, experiencing it all when it came out, and then we see each other on the red carpet, and it’s not intimate, and we kind of hadn’t really had a chance to do nothing and just hang out,” he explained. “Last night kind of felt like closing the circle on things a bit.”
‘Dolittle’ bombs at the box office
Unfortunately for Downey, his recent foray into other projects with Dolittle did not exactly pan out.
The film grossed $29 million on opening weekend, eventually spelling a loss for Universal Studios. “There’s a lot that went wrong with Dolittle, but chief among them was spending MCU money (and giving Downey Jr. an MCU paycheck) for playing anyone other than Iron Man,” Forbes reported.
Others felt it was Downey’s performance that brought down Dolittle.
“Downey’s performance in Dolittle was widely criticized, especially his accent, which seemed to drift uneasily from a tortured stab at something vaguely Welsh to an (unintentional?) Jamaican timbre,” according to GQ. “Still, it feels unfair to but all of the blame for Dolittle’s disastrous reception at Downey’s feet.”
Now, some fans are wondering whether Dolittle bombing will mean a return to the MCU for Downey. But based on his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, it does not seem like it.
