Rumors surrounding a potential return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Tony Stark started while fans were still mourning his death in Avengers: Endgame, with widespread speculation that the franchise’s marquee attraction could be brought back anywhere from an Ironheart series on Disney Plus to the voice of Spider-Man’s artificial intelligence.
Iron Man may have made the ultimate sacrifice play to save the universe, but the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist’s absence from our screens hasn’t lasted very long, with Marvel using Black Widow‘s status as a prequel set directly after the events of Captain America: Civil War to rope Robert Downey Jr. in for a cameo.
While the exact contents of his brief appearance have remained in the realm of speculation so far, we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones that told us Taskmaster would be the villain of the movie long before it was officially confirmed – that Tony will inadvertently lend Natasha Romanoff’s enemy a huge assist as he seeks to carry out his nefarious plan.
According to our intel, some of the gadgets and weapons that we’ve seen Taskmaster wield in the various Black Widow trailers will all be based on stolen Stark Industries technology, which would continue Tony’s unwanted reputation as the man responsible for an alarmingly high number of the franchise’s villains.
There’s a widespread belief that the biggest threat that faced the MCU during the Infinity Saga was Tony himself, with the eccentric inventor being directly or indirectly responsible for Iron Monger, Whiplash, Aldrich Killian, Ultron, Vulture, Mysterio, Zemo and even Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver before they turned towards the light in Age of Ultron, so it would definitely be fitting for both the character and the franchise if Black Widow‘s antagonist was also born from similar origins.
