Despite his departure from the MCU in 2019, Robert Downey Jr. has been imagined returning as Tony Stark’s Iron Man in 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars, though not as the version that audiences know and love. Downey Jr. debuted as Tony Stark in 2008’s Iron Man, and went on to spearhead the MCU for the next decade, marking an explosive comeback for Robert Downey Jr. following a tumultuous period during the 1990s and 2000s. On the heels of his Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Oppenheimer, Downey Jr. has been heavily-rumored to be returning to the MCU.

The most logical place for Robert Downey Jr. to reprise his role of Tony Stark’s Iron Man would be in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Secret Wars. Adapted from the Marvel Comics Secret Wars event, the Phase 6 project is expected to feature many returning characters from a variety of Marvel franchises, and Downey Jr.’s return has been depicted in fan art shared by MJD Artworks.

This art imagines Robert Downey Jr. returning as a variant of his popular MCU hero, one who has scars over his eyes, bearing a resemblance to Kang the Conqueror’s scars in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

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There have been calls for Robert Downey Jr. to return to the MCU ever since Tony Stark sacrificed himself to eliminate Thanos and save the universe in Avengers: Endgame. Stark’s death in Endgame was a major loss for the MCU, and heartbreaking for audiences, but Marvel Studios and Robert Downey Jr. have been hesitant to bring Iron Man back into the fray. During a December 2023 cover story on Downey Jr., Vanity Fair spoke to Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, who revealed that Downey Jr.’s original version of Tony Stark likely wouldn’t return, not wanting to “touch that moment again.”

We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again. We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way.

While this means that Robert Downey Jr.’s original iteration of Tony Stark’s Iron Man probably won’t return in Avengers: Secret Wars, retaining the emotional impact of his death, this doesn’t discount the possibility of Downey Jr. portraying a multiversal variant. Avengers: Secret Wars provides the perfect opportunity for a multiversal variant of Iron Man to reappear in the MCU, as the project has been rumored to include variants from many different franchises. Since Marvel Studios provided the means for Robert Downey Jr. to recover from his controversies, he may choose to return and celebrate his MCU career one last time.