Robert Downey Jr is undoubetly the star of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The success of Iron Man is the reason it exists at all and he has held that mantel for nearly a decade, but it appears he is well aware of the potential fatigue of the genre and/or his character Tony Stark who has starred in six movies so far with Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War being the seventh and eighth respectively. Naturally, the threat of the villain Thanos in the upcoming Avengers movie has people talking of the potential consequences for MCU’s heroes.

Kevin Feige has also mentioned that Avengers: Infinity War will be the end for some characters in an earlier interview. As a result, there have been rumours swirling of Iron Man’s fate at the hands of Thanos, which is lent some credence by Downey Jr’s latest comments to news.com.au. Here’s what he had to say:

“It’s this cyclical thing, I could have said when the first Avengers came out: ‘It’s never going to get any better than that. Everybody stop’. But to me it’s always about people and opportunities, like the [Avengers: Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo], who I adore. Everyone says to me it’s like a glove that fits so well. I have to start over every time but I am starting over with a pretty solid base. I just never want to blow it for the last six or seven [MCU movies] I have done by dropping the ball because I decided to go do it one more time. I just want to hang up my jersey before it’s embarrassing.”

Pictured: Peter Parker and Tony Stark in the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming

However, Downey Jr notes that he continues to reprise his role because the quality of MCU movies have yet to take a hit. He says of the upcoming Spider-Man flick:

“I felt like we were literally back in the writer’s room on the first Iron Man, so there was a real sense of a homecoming toward this — not experimental, because there is so much more data now and the process is so much more streamlined — but I didn’t feel like I was being asked to just fit in somewhere. They wanted us to bring our own little thing.”

Marvel has clearly focused the marketing of Spider-Man: Homecoming on the mentor/guru role that Tony Stark plays for Peter Parker, so much so that fans have criticised the decision because it’s looking more like Iron Man: Homecoming featuring Spider-Man. It’s worth noting that the marketing does not reflect Tony Stark’s role in the movie which has been said to be very small. Moreover, given that we now know the Spider-Man sequel will take place immediately after Avengers 4, is it too much of a stretch to assume the Spider-Man sequel will deal with Peter Parker struggling to come to terms with Tony Stark’s death whilst finding his own feet again without his guidance available to him any longer? Robert Downey Jr’s current contract officially ends after Avengers 4, of course the possiblity of renewing that is always there but given his latest comments, will he want to?

What do you think of Downey Jr’s latest comments, are you ready to see Iron Man hang up his boots?

Source: News.com.au, Images via IMDb

Spider-Man: Homecoming swings into Cinemas July 7th, 2017

Published by Qamar Shafiq

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