Image: Marvel Studios
The MCU began with Robert Downey Jr.'s career-defining role as Iron Man in 2008. Over the next 11 years, Downey reprized the role in numerous sequels and team-ups, and now that he has some distance, he believes that all in all his tenure at Marvel was intentionally ignored.
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Recently, Downey appeared in Rob Lowe's Literally! podcast and mentioned that he believes his Iron Man work – which he says is “some of the best work I'll ever do” – was rejected “because of the genre.” He doesn't really have a point in that regard: the way some people talk about him in Oppenheimer, you'd think Marvel would have held him hostage until relatively recently. (A similar event is currently happening with Mark Ruffalo and Poor Things.) And while not all of the choices the writers made with Stark work, he was always good in the role and worked to deliver a performance every time. he is introduced.
Downey's immediate post-Marvel film was Dolittle, on which he also served as an executive producer along with his wife Susan. The film's negative reception and tepid commercial response left him feeling “so exposed” after Marvel protected him like… well, armor. “All the things I relied on as opposed to my understanding of confidence and security are gone,” he said. Looking back on Dolittle now, he admits it was a mess, even if it “made me teachable.”
Oppenheimer recently won him a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and he is expected to be nominated for an Oscar in the same category. This film and his next two projects — HBO's The Sympathizer and Shane Black's Play Dirty — show that he has no desire to return to Marvel any time soon. Last November, it was reported that Marvel was considering reuniting the original Avengers to re-engage audiences with the MCU during its recent rough patches, with Kevin Feige and Scarlett Johansson later individually dancing around questions about it. But if Avengers: Secret Wars ever becomes a reality, this would probably be the best place for a cameo from one of the OG Avengers, including Downey. If that's the case, perhaps his previous Marvel appearances will be discussed more seriously compared to the rest of his work.
[via Variety]
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