Based on recent comments, actor Robert Downey, Jr. may be looking to end his decade-long tenure as the face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Given how many times Downey has played Tony Stark over the years, we can't really blame him if he does choose to move on and spend more time swimming in his Scrooge McDuck-style money vault. Sooner or later, Downey is going to hang up his amor for the final time.
That does leave the MCU in a tough spot, however. Can Marvel Studios soldier on without its biggest and most bankable star? Should Tony Stark remain a fixture in the MCU, or should he be retired in favor of a newer, younger (and cheaper) generation of heroes? We have a few ideas on how Marvel could respond to a Downey-less MCU.
The most straightforward option is for Marvel to simply retire Tony and let the character ride off into the sunset. One of the advantages the Marvel movies often have over the comics is that they're able to give characters real endings and allow dead heroes and villains to stay dead. There's something to be said for the MCU letting Tony's story end in a way that'll probably never happen in the comics.
Consider also that the MCU has advanced more or less in real time since its debut in 2008's Iron Man. Tony Stark is a decade older than he was when he built that first armored suit out of scraps in a cave. At some point these movies might have to acknowledge the character's advancing age. Maybe Marvel Studios could give us "the last" Iron Man movie, one that caps off Downey's work in the same way Logan did for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. That prospect is certainly appealing...
There's a strong argument to be made for letting Tony Stark exit the MCU stage gracefully. On the other hand, is it really in Marvel's best interest to let such a popular and lucrative character simply fade away? What about when Chris Evans decades to call it quits as Captain America or Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow? Marvel can't simply retire all the Avengers one by one as actors move on. At some point they have to grow comfortable with the idea of recasting their A-List characters.
As much as we'd like to see the Iron Man equivalent of Logan, it's far more likely that Marvel will simply cast a new actor as Tony Stark once Downey moves on. The role could easily become the next James Bond, where a new A-List actor comes along every decade or so to leave their mark before passing the torch to the next person.
The challenge, of course, is finding someone who can live up to the standard set by Downey. It's not going to be easy. But it's not an impossible task, and a successful recasting of Tony Stark could pave the way forMarvel to recast other key roles in the MCU. We've already seen Mark Ruffalo deftly step in to take over as Hulk, proving that audiences are perfectly willing to accept new actors as long as they do justice to these iconic heroes.
One interesting option is to not just recast Tony Stark, but do it in such a way where the movies actually acknowledge Tony's sudden change in appearance. Why not introduce a plot point in a post-Infinity War Avengers movie where Tony physically de-ages from middle-aged billionaire misanthrope to teenage heartthrob?
Strange as that sounds, there actually is a precedent for this in the comics. An extended storyline in the mid-'90s saw the adult Tony Stark driven mad by Immortus, forcing the Avengers to travel back in time and enlist the aid of Tony's younger self. Teen Tony became the new Iron Man for a while, until he merged with his older self and the status quo reverted to normal (more or less).
We're not sure how directly Marvel Studios should borrow from that storyline, but it does serve as a good starting point. Another option is to look to "Extremis," a storyline where a badly injured Tony injected himself with the titular virus and rebuilt his body from the ground up. Tony didn't actually de-age in that story, but there's no reason the movies couldn't use Extremis as an excuse to change Tony's physical appearance and explain away the recasting.
Perhaps Marvel's best option here is to look at how Tony Stark is being handled in the current comics. In the aftermath of last year's Civil War II storyline, Tony Stark is now comatose and out of commission. In his place, teen genius Riri Williams and reformed despot Victor Von Doom have both taken up the Iron Man mantle. Obviously, introducing the latter character is out of the question for Marvel Studios, but there's no reason they couldn't add Riri to the MCU.
Riri's debut could be a great way of re-energizing the Iron Man movies and appealing to new audiences. Considering the lack of female-driven Marvel movies and Marvel's ongoing efforts to increase diversity in the MCU, Riri could be a critical step in the right direction. Not to mention the fact that she's quickly grown into a compelling character in her own right in the comics. Between her tragic back-story and her sarcastic, abrasive relationships with her fellow heroes, Riri could channel a lot of what moviegoers love about Downey's Tony Stark while charting her own course.
Tony Stark is a character who blurs the line between man and machine in the MCU. Why not take that gradual evolution all the way and transform Tony from flesh-and-blood human to fully digitized artificial intelligence? Again, this is something that has precedence in the comics. Even now, Riri Wlliams is being mentored by a digitized version of Tony's consciousness that was created shortly before the events of Civil War II. In effect, Tony has become her JARVIS.
If the MCU shifts focus from Tony to Riri, we see no reason why the movies couldn't include a digital Tony Stark sidekick. It could be a great way of easing the transition from one hero to the other. Or Tony could remain an independent character in his new digital form, manifesting in holographic form and taking control of his fleet of Iron Man suits whenever the need arises.
With no physical body, it's much easier to work around the fact that Tony is no longer being played by Downey. And who knows? Maybe Downey might be amenable to sticking around longer if he only has to voice the character.
Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
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