Iron Man may be dead in MCU, but that doesn’t mean he won’t continue to play a hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Rumors began floating around Robert Downey Jr. reprising in Marvel Studios’ Black Widow film.
Um, shock! After what followers assumed to be his final performance of Robert Rowney Jr. as a superhero in this year’s Avengers: Endgame, it seems Robert Downey Jr. isn’t done with the MCU yet. However, it’s possible Tony Stark’s return is not a cameo or full-fledged role, but his role will be recycled archival footage or deleted scenes, which the Marvel Cinematic Universe has a small culture of relying on.
Being a movie franchise with over 23 movies and counting, the Marvel Cinematic Universe quite often emphasizes familiar faces without actually having said familiar face on set.
Scarlett Johansson’s part in Thor: Ragnarok was reused clip from 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, while Natalie Portman’s cameo in Avengers: Endgame was actually an unused deleted scene from 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. And, of course, there was the video tribute to the Avengers in the opening of Spider-Man: Far From Home, which paid homage to Iron Man, Vision, and Black Widow to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”
This might also be the instance with Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man in Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, the long-anticipated solo movie starring Scarlett Johansson as her world-famous Black Widow supposedly set in between the movies Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Captain America: Civil War (2016). It’s set to be plenty of archival and unused material featuring Robert that Marvel can recycle for the Phase Four film.
Or maybe not! Robert Downey Jr. could just as well be in the middle of filming new scenes for Black Widow, but that still doesn’t mean fans should expect Iron Man to actually return.
Black Widow is set to take place before Infinity War and Endgame, which means Iron Man is alive during those events of the movie. Followers won’t know for sure until Black Widowhits cinemas next summer.
