The MCU Will Reportedly Introduce A Young Tony Stark

A new report is pointing to Marvel working on recasting Iron Man. But wait, it’s not as sacrilegious as it sounds.

According to what Giant Freakin Robot is sharing, the studio is currently looking into featuring a young Tony Stark in an unknown upcoming project. We don’t know exactly what age range this version of Stark will be in, but it’s apparently young enough that it requires a different actor to play the part than the 56-year-old Robert Downey Jr.

Of course, RDJ previously portrayed a more youthful Tony in Captain America: Civil War, thanks to a flashback to the day his parents died recreated by his B.A.R.F. holographic tech. De-aging folks with CGI is becoming much more common in the industry, too, with Marvel in particular preferring it to recasting. John Slattery played a young Howard in Avengers: Endgame, for instance, and not Dominic Cooper. So, why do they need to find a new Stark now?

Well, there may be a few reasons for this. The first is that Downey Jr. just isn’t interested in coming back, or at least not yet, so they’ve been forced to look elsewhere. It may also be because this young Tony will only appear for a brief cameo. Maybe even in one of the upcoming Iron Man-related Disney Plus shows – Ironheart and Armor Wars – so it isn’t worth paying through the teeth to get RDJ.

Alternatively, GFR speculates that this other Tony could be from elsewhere in the multiverse. Perhaps Marvel is going to introduce an alternate version of Iron Man. This would be the best way of rebooting the character without necessarily replacing Downey Jr. and making the fans furious. Depending on how young they are, they could even be the MCU version of Iron Lad from the Young Avengers, if they wanted to somewhat simplify his convoluted origins from the comics.

However it happens, introducing a new Tony Stark into the franchise would be a huge – and potentially risky – deal. But given the might of the Iron Man name, it’s no surprise that Marvel is thinking about it.