Around the time of Avengers: Endgame’s release, Robert Downey Jr. made it abundantly clear that it would be his final Marvel movie and he was done with the role of Tony Stark. And the movie made a spectacular finale for Tony’s MCU arc, so fans were perfectly happy for Downey to call it a day and leave that perfect ending intact. He’s returning for the What If...? series, but that doesn’t really count because it’s all hypothetical.
There have been all kinds of rumors about Downey possibly reprising the role in the mainline canon. It’s also been reported that Downey will appear as Tony in the upcoming Black Widow movie. The MCU should probably refrain from bringing back Tony, but there are a couple of ways it could work.
Shouldn’t Bring Him Back: He Got The Perfect Swansong In Endgame
The most obvious reason why Marvel shouldn’t bring back Robert Downey Jr. is that Tony Stark already got the perfect swansong in Avengers: Endgame. Sacrificing himself to save the universe from a cosmic threat was the perfect conclusion to Tony’s story.
Ever since he first donned the suit, he’d been tormented by his limitations and the possibility of a villain that the Avengers couldn’t defeat. After he used the Infinity Stones to destroy Thanos, Pepper summed up the end of his arc perfectly: “You can rest now.”
How It Could Work: A.I. Consciousness
In the comics, Tony Stark created an A.I. to replicate his own consciousness, so that he could live forever. It was a lot like the cyborg clones created from people’s social media accounts in the Black Mirror episode “Be Right Back,” featuring the MCU’s Hayley Atwell.
This would be a fun way for Downey to reprise his role as Tony without really playing Tony. He’d be playing a fake version of Tony that exists in a computer.
Shouldn’t Bring Him Back: The MCU Needs To Focus On New Heroes
In many ways, Spider-Man: Far From Home — the final chapter in “The Infinity Saga” — was a postscript to Avengers: Endgame, establishing what a post-Thanos, post-Snap, post-Blip MCU was going to look like in the MCU’s next saga.
The Infinity Saga was all about Iron Man. The new saga beginning with WandaVision needs to focus on new and underdeveloped characters instead of getting hung up on the established ones whose stories have already been told.
How It Could Work: The Multiverse
While the MCU’s last saga revolved around the Infinity Stones, the new saga will revolve around the multiverse as characters like Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch rip the spacetime continuum to shreds and create cosmic bedlam.
This could lead to the introduction of a Tony Stark from a different universe who didn’t have to die to save the universe from Thanos’ wrath.
Shouldn’t Bring Him Back: His Successor Is Already Joining The MCU
Just as Steve Rogers has relinquished the Captain America title to Sam Wilson and Natasha Romanoff will relinquish the Black Widow title to Yelena Belova (and Thor to Jane Foster and Hawkeye to Kate Bishop and so on), Tony Stark’s mantle is about to be passed on to Riri Williams.
Tony in the comics and Downey in real life have both endorsed Riri as their successor, and she’s set to join the MCU in an Ironheart series on Disney+.
How It Could Work: Pre-Recorded Messages
At Tony’s funeral in Endgame, a few of his closest loved ones gather around the living room to watch a holographic message he recorded in case he died during the ambitious Time Heist effort.
It’s possible that when he recorded this message, he recorded a bunch of others, like one for Peter Parker to watch when he faces the biggest crisis of his life (i.e. the one he’s about to face in his next solo movie) or one for Morgan to open when she’s a little older or one for a potential successor who turns out to be Riri Williams.
Shouldn’t Bring Him Back: Downey Should Move On To Other Projects
Robert Downey Jr. has been preoccupied with the role of Tony Stark for over a decade. He could’ve had a better return to non-Marvel stardom than Dolittle, but he has plenty of exciting projects on the horizon.
A third Sherlock Holmes movie is in development and as a producer, Downey now has the freedom to get any ambitious, original project he wants off the ground.
How It Could Work: A Supporting Role In Armor Wars
One of the many Marvel series coming to Disney+ is Armor Wars, in which James Rhodes will contend with Tony’s worst fear — his tech getting into the wrong hands — and Tony’s death will reportedly play a major role in the story.
In the movies, Rhodey is pretty one-note and thinly written. As a series, Armor Wars has the freedom to really flesh out the character, and this could involve setting the story across different parts of the MCU timeline, featuring scenes from Tony and Rhodey’s lifelong friendship.
Shouldn’t Bring Him Back: Marvel Needs To Take Character Deaths Seriously
In the Marvel Comics universe, and in superhero comics in general, dead characters never stay dead. They’re always resurrected at some point or their death is retconned and it loses its impact. This is fine for comics churning out new storylines every week, but movies are different.
With Star Wars bringing back dead characters left and right, the MCU needs to take its character deaths seriously, or the death scenes and the ensuing grief will become meaningless.
How It Could Work: Flashback Scenes
There have been rumors that the Black Widow movie, set between the events of Civil War and Infinity War, will feature a cameo appearance by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. This kind of return can work because it’ll fill in little gaps in Tony’s arc without undermining the tragedy of his death.
Like Walter White’s surprise appearance in El Camino, it’s possible to bring back an iconic character whose story had a perfect ending in a flashback sequence that doesn’t tarnish the legacy of the original work.