Avengers – Secret Wars: Don’t Hold Your Breath on a Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man Return

When it was rumored that Avengers: Secret Wars would be crossing over multiple characters across all Marvel franchises like Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies and Fox’s X-Men timeline, there was a rumor floating around that Robert Downey Jr. could return as Iron Man. While it seemed like it was going to be possible, a Marvel producer has confirmed that an RDJ return won’t be happening.

Talking to io9, Marvel Studios producer Stephen Broussard expressed how the recent phase is all about establishing new heroes. He says:

“If you look at, like, Cassie [Lang in Quantumania] getting a suit and Kate Bishop [in Hawkeye], new characters being introduced like Jack in Werewolf by Night. After these first 10 years of Marvel storytelling, torches are being passed, like with Robert Downey Jr. no longer being [on the] table and stuff like that. So it was kind of like a new generation stepping to the forefront which, again, has always happened in the comics.”

While some are thinking that the mention that RDJ is ‘no longer on the table’ means that he was being considered for a return for a while, I think it just means that his time in the MCU is done, and the franchise is just focusing on which characters are coming next.

With the Multiverse being introduced, I do think that Marvel already has the next few decades in mind, and they could be introducing variant versions of Captain America or Iron Man telling their own new stories.

At least, that’s my guess.

For now, Avengers: Secret Wars is set to release on May 1, 2026. The first movie in Phase 5, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now showing in theaters.