Robert Downey Jr. will not be returning as Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, according to Kevin Feige. In a recent Vanity Fair cover story about Downey Jr., the president of Marvel Studios addressed whether or not they would resurrect Iron Man/Tony Stark after his death in "Avengers: Endgame." “We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again,” Feige said of Stark’s final moments in the 2019 film. “We all worked very hard for many years to...
Marvel
Kevin
Feige
Chief Creative Officer / President, Marvel Studios
Despite its many films and series in recent years, Marvel hit a breaking point in 2023. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” hit its mark, but a third “Ant-Man” film in February and “The Marvels” in November missed returns large enough to justify their $200 million-plus budgets. “The Marvels” saw the lowest opening yet for any MCU film, in stark contrast to 2019’s billion-dollar success for “Captain Marvel.” With two of its leads hailing from prior Disney+ shows, “The Marvels” demonstrated a failure of brand synergy across mediums that has significantly contributed to Disney’s quarterly SVOD losses. Feige has begun to overhaul Marvel’s efforts as a result, hiring new writers and directors for “Daredevil: Born Again” after production shut down during the strikes and embracing traditional showrunner and multi-season strategies for shows going forward, instead of more limited series “Secret Invasion.” Marvel’s longtime post-production chief Victoria Alonso was also let go this year, with Disney citing a contract breach as the reason, though Alonso has contested this. On the talent side, new MCU star Jonathan Majors was let go from upcoming roles as well after he was convicted in December of two misdemeanor counts of harassment and assault of his ex-girlfriend, stemming from a March incident that led to his initial arrest.
