No one’s ever really gone, especially in the world of comic books. But, at least for now, Tony Stark is good and truly dead. This, according to Marvel Studios Executive Vice President Victoria Alonso, who says they have no plans to resurrect Iron Man following Robert Downey Jr.’s swan song in last year’s Avengers: Endgame.
As fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are surely aware, Iron Man sacrificed himself at the end of Avengers: Endgame to stop Thanos and save the universe. But given the popularity of the character and the nature of the universe, there are still lingering questions as to whether or not Robert Downey Jr.’s days in the MCU are truly numbered. Victoria Alonso, in a recent interview with a Spanish publication, made it quite clear Tony Stark is no more.
“Tony Stark is dead. And that’s our story. Resurrection I do not know , I do not know how we would do it. It seems to me that the story of Tony Stark is told by us. Hence, he has left his inheritance, who he is for example in Spider-Ma , because Peter Parker has been a false son, so you see a lot of what Tony Stark would have been in Peter Parker. And it seems to me that you see that constantly in how one person influences the other. But no, at the moment we don’t have any plans.”
The interview was translated from Spanish so it is imperfect. Be that as it may, it’s not hard to get the gist of it. Iron Man introduced us to the MCU in 2008 and RDJ quickly became the face of that universe. For more than a decade, moviegoers turned out in droves to see Tony Stark and his fellow Avengers on the big screen, generating billions at the box office. But all good things must come to an end. Tony Stark met a fitting and meaningful end in Endgame. Bringing him back would only serve to tarnish what was accomplished.
That said, there are ways a new version of Iron Man could appear down the line. For one, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is going to open up the idea of the Marvel multiverse. That means we could, in theory, get a new Tony Stark in an alternate universe, or something along those lines. There were also rumors floating around about an Ironheart movie in development, which would bring Riri Williams in as the superhero who takes up the Iron Man mantle.
Robert Downey Jr., meanwhile, has stated that he is done with Marvel and has moved on to other projects. The actor is currently trying to get Sherlock Holmes 3 off the ground and hopes that he can parlay that into a Sherlock Holmes cinematic universe. Downey is rumored to appear in Black Widow. Though, since the movie takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, that wouldn’t get in the way of continuity. This news comes to us via Clarin.
