Robert Downey Jr. wouldn't say no to coming back to Iron Man because you should "never, ever bet against Kevin Feige"

Robert Downey Jr. certainly isn't opposed to an Iron Man comeback, even though the character is technically meant to be dead.

Back in 2019, after making films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Downey Jr. said goodbye to his career defining role as Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. Death felt like a fitting end for a character whose whole thing was supposed to be attempting to redeem himself for all of the deaths that he caused, and even if I don't love the MCU, it felt like a weighty, if slightly unearned choice to make. However, even though the character is dead, Downey Jr. would be happy to ruin that thematic decision and come back to the character. The now Oscar winner spoke to Esquire following his award for his performance in Oppenheimer last month, where he shared his feeling on the possibility of returning to Iron Man.

"Happily. It’s too integral a part of my DNA," Downey Jr. said. "That role chose me. And look, I always say, 'Never, ever bet against Kevin Feige.' It is a losing bet. He’s the house. He will always win." To be fair to Feige, though, in an interview with Vanity Fair last year, the MCU head did say that there are no plans to bring Iron Man back from the dead. "We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again," he said at the time. "We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way."

This did follow reports that claimed Feige and co were looking to bring back retired characters due to the fact Marvel is supposedly planning to move away from Kang as the MCU's next big villain. That's still up in the air though, so for now we just have to hope that Feige doesn't go back on his word.