Given that Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark had an incredible exit from the MCU in Avengers: Endgame, many were puzzled when it was revealed that he’d also be appearing in Black Widow. Among those raising an eyebrow was Downey Jr. himself, who recently hinted in an interview that he’d found out he was in the movie at about the same time as everyone else. He grumbled about the use of deepfake technology and said:
“I mean, it would be nice if they notified me. Forewarned is forearmed. They can do anything now. This could be a deep fake interview for all we know.”
Most had assumed that Stark’s appearance in Black Widow would be very limited, but now we may have an idea of the exact role he plays in it. Yesterday, a spoiler-filled synopsis of the film hit the internet and while we advise taking it with a grain of salt as it was posted on 4chan and could very well be the wishful ramblings of a fan, a lot of it sounds plausible and lines up with previous rumors that’ve surfaced.
The anonymous leaker lays out the broad strokes of the movie’s plot, praises the action scenes and reveals the post-credit sequences. But here’s what they say about Stark’s cameo in particular:
“[Robert Downey Jr.] scene is right at the beginning. Telling ScarJo that the government is gonna come after her harder than the other avengers because of her history. Helps her get a head start.”
Which makes sense. However, the leaker says that you can tell that Downey Jr.’s performance has been edited into the movie, explaining that it “felt like Leia in Rise of Skywalker.” I guess actually getting the actor on set would be prohibitively expensive, not to mention that he probably wouldn’t want to do it. But, if that’s the case, then do they really need the scene?
My bet is that including this is a quick way of bolstering audience numbers for a film that could have more limited appeal than other MCU efforts. After all, it’s an uphill battle to sell a pic starring a character that everyone and their dog saw dramatically die in the biggest movie of all time a year ago. We’ll find out for certain though on May 1st, when Black Widow opens in theaters.
