There were millions of Marvel Cinematic Universe fans wiping away the tears when Robert Downey Jr. bowed out of the shared mythology during Avengers: Endgame‘s emotional climax, drawing a line under his tenure as Tony Stark that had seen the actor rocket to the top of the A-list and establish himself as the marquee name in the world’s biggest franchise.
When talking about iconic characters in comic book movies, in terms of longevity and popularity, only Hugh Jackman’s run as Wolverine can be mentioned in the same breath as RDJ’s Tony Stark, but just a couple of months after Endgame had destroyed countless box office records on the way to becoming the highest-grossing title in history, it was reported that the actor could already be set for a comeback.
With Black Widow being a prequel taking place after the events of Captain America: Civil War, in which Tony obviously played a major part, it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that Downey Jr. could show up for a brief cameo given his long association with the title heroine. However, a new tweet now claims that unless Marvel are keeping their cards very close to the chest, the 55 year-old isn’t involved in the long-awaited spinoff.
But for sure there will not be any scenes what Deadline mentioned about Stark back in September 2019 as per what I have been told by multiple sources. 2/2
— Amit Chaudhari 🗸 (@5150Aamrit) November 8, 2020
Of course, these sorts of reports can’t be taken as gospel, and there’s a chance that Downey Jr. was never a part of Black Widow in the first place. He could appear through archival footage or deleted scenes to set the plot in motion, or it could all be a red herring created by the notoriously secretive Marvel Studios to keep the actor’s surprise appearance under wraps until the movie arrives next May. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see.
