Incredibly, this year marks the 50th anniversary of Robert Downey Jr.‘s first screen appearance in his father’s comedy Pound, and over the last half a century it would be fair to say the actor has experienced his fair share of ups and downs.
His journey has included a stint as a Saturday Night Live cast member, a run as the star of several teen comedies, a shift into more dramatic territory, a fall from grace that included multiple arrests, drug addiction, stints in rehab and prison time, and an acclaimed mini-resurgence on the small screen before he rose like a phoenix from the ashes to become one of the most famous, highest-paid and popular actors of the modern era thanks to his career-defining role as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Tony Stark.
After drawing a line under his tenure as Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame, RDJ’s first non-Marvel project in six years saw him headline $175 million blockbuster Dolittle, which was savaged by critics and tanked at the box office, but 2020 has been so strange that it still ranks as the fifth-highest grossing movie of the year. Insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming, though, that the pic’s poor performance has caused the actor to reevaluate his options, and he’s reportedly planning on making a fast return to the MCU and wants to appear in multiple projects.
Of course, Richtman’s intel is directly contradicted by comments made in a recent interview by the man himself, after Robert Downey Jr. admitted that he’d done all that he could with the role of Iron Man and was looking forward to evolving into the next stage of his career. That being said, RDJ certainly won’t have been the first actor to lie in an interview if this turns out to be true and besides, you can never rule anything out in the world of comic book movies, especially with the funds Marvel have at their disposal.
