Robert Downey. Jr Would "Happily" Work With Marvel Again

Following his first-ever Oscar win for Oppenheimer, many are wondering what roles Robert Downey Jr. might take on next. Some might have assumed he was finished with Marvel after his long and successful run as Iron Man that culminated in the character's death in Avengers: Endgame. But Downey Jr. has now said he's open to the idea of coming back to Marvel.

Speaking to Esquire, Downey Jr. said he would "happily" come back for another Marvel role one day. "It's too integral a part of my DNA. That role chose me. And look, I always say, 'Never, ever bet against [Marvel president] Kevin Feige.' It is a losing bet. He's the house. He will always win," he said.

Downey Jr. was not an easy sell to Marvel's management when he was originally cast as Iron Man back in the mid-2000s due to his many legal issues that led to prison time. But he eventually landed the part and helped make Marvel movies massively successful.

If Downey Jr. does come back to Marvel, it remains to be seen if he'd play Iron Man again or someone else. In 2023, Feige said the movie studio won't resurrect Downey Jr.'s Iron Man.

"We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again," Feige said of the character's death scene. "We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way."

Of course, that doesn't rule out Downey Jr. returning to the MCU in some other way.

Also in the Esquire interview, Gwyneth Paltrow, who starred in the Iron Man films opposite Downey Jr. as Pepper Potts, discussed how Downey Jr. often refused to say the lines that were written for him.

"There would be this process of [director] Jon Favreau and Robert and I going into Jon's trailer in the morning and Robert being like, 'I'm not fucking saying these lines' and throwing them out," Paltrow said. "And then live improv-ing either in the trailer or on the set. I think in order for something to feel alive for Robert, it has to feel fresh, and he makes it fresh by making it feel like it was just invented. So many of those famous lines were written 10 minutes before we said them."

Downey Jr. will be seen next on Max's The Sympathizer TV series, in which he plays multiple characters.