Exclusive: Marvel Is Recasting Tony Stark
Tony Stark is being replaced.
This article is more than 2 years old
Tony Stark kicked off the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are no Avengers without the original performance that Robert Downey Jr. brought to the table. After his departure from the franchise in Avengers: Endgame, many have assumed that we have seen the last of Iron Man. His sendoff was appropriately powerful and certainly put a period on the end of an era when it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And with characters like Ironheart set to take center stage, it was totally reasonable to believe that we had seen the last of Tony Stark.
However, we decided to touch base with one of our insider sources who has proven to be on the money in the past and they passed along some truly surprising news. According to them, the powers-that-be at Marvel Studios are currently discussing recasting Tony Stark. This sounds ludicrous at first considering how indelible Robert Downey Jr. was in the role, but it turns out that the recasting is for a very specific reason. Our source says that Marvel is looking to feature a young Tony Stark in an upcoming project. They were not able to confirm what the exact project would be, but are certain that Marvel is angling to find a young actor to play the once and future Iron Man.
Immediately, our heads started spinning with potential theories as to why Marvel Studios would be reintegrating an appearance by Tony Stark into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Our first thought was that this would simply be some piece of flashback material for one of their upcoming Disney+ series. Between Ironheart and Armor Wars, there would certainly be plenty of opportunities to point us towards some unseen moments from Tony’s childhood. That means that we might be seeing Tony when he is much younger than we are used to seeing him. If either of these shows wanted to set up some kind of piece from Tony’s past coming back into play in the present, that seems like a logical deduction.
But, what if this younger Tony Stark is not the character we have come to know and love? We know that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to really start exploring the potential of the multiverse. Could this younger version of the character end up coming from an alternate dimension? If so, would that mean his appearance would be less of a cameo and more of a way to give fans a brand new Tony Stark without totally treading on the version that Robert Downey Jr. helped cultivate over an entire decade? This is definitely the wackiest idea we could come up with, but Marvel is not afraid of going off the rails as we are sure to see in both Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Regardless of how he returns, it looks like we can expect to see a young Tony Stark in the not-too-distant future. Just how the Marvel Cinematic Universe intends to utilize him remains to be seen, but we can guarantee that it will be a momentous occasion when he does show up.
