Why hasn’t Marvel brought back Iron Man in the multiverse?

Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) is one of the most important characters in the MCU, and his death in *Avengers: Endgame* was very emotional. However, since the multiverse exists, Marvel technically could introduce a variant of Iron Man from another universe or even explore a different version of Tony Stark.

Why do you think Marvel hasn’t done this yet?

* Is it because they want to respect Tony Stark’s sacrifice?
* Is RDJ officially done with the role?
* Or do you think Marvel is saving an Iron Man variant for a future movie or saga?

I’m curious to hear what other fans think and whether bringing back Iron Man (as a variant, not replacing the original) would help or hurt the MCU.

Commentaires

rubyschnees2026-01-27 16:26

maybe, and hear me out on this, it's because other characters deserve the spotlight

i know that's a hard pill to swallow, but at a certain point ya'll gotta move on

Dry-Log84692026-01-27 16:28

i just miss him

LewisRyan2026-01-27 16:31

This. Iron man is 100% important to the MCU, we wouldn’t have an MCU if his movies didn’t do so well.

But in the comics, hes just another character, in some stories, not on others, there’s no reason we constantly need an iron man to function

Dry-Log84692026-01-27 16:37

its too bored now its not about iron man also captain America

Temporary_Draft_66122026-01-27 17:52

huh ??

juances192026-01-27 18:13

And you think that bringing a new ironman that has no connection to the rest of the MCu would be fun at all?

Ironman was so good and important because he was connected to everyone else. Bringing a new ironman won't bring all of that back, he'd be a random stranger that just happens to have the same name.

SeekerVash2026-01-27 22:25

Disney is a business. Movies are extremely expensive.

If the audience isn't interested in an MCU without Ironman, there's no moving on, the MCU is over.

tcguy712026-01-27 16:28

When would you have brought him back?

FictionFantom2026-01-27 16:45

Had Disney not bought Fox, Superior Iron Man as a big bad of the multiverse saga would be neat.

Bibb5ter2026-01-27 16:28

It would lessen his sacrifice if he came back in the next movie, variant or not.

FictionFantom2026-01-27 16:38

Like Logan?

riegspsych3252026-01-27 23:44

RDJ coming back to play Iron Man for Secret Wars has surely been in the cards for years. As soon as FoX-Men and Sony-Men started popping up in the MCU, Tony’s return should have been obvious

A hero shot of him alongside Jackman, Reynolds, Maguire, Snipes(?), Holland, Evans and the rest will print money for Marvel. Look at how the 3 biggest moneymakers in this Saga have all brought back legacy actors

RDJ doing double duty as Doom is a result of Majors being arrested

Supermite2026-01-27 16:29

It cost them $100 million+ to get RDJ back for Doomsday/Secret Wars. They waited until they desperately needed to inject any kind of hype back into the MCU.

Dry-Log84692026-01-27 16:34

yes the point is here there is no hype

sam in cap

nat is dead

hulk

i think spider man is the most influential now

FictionFantom2026-01-27 16:40

So people really thought Marvel was going to make the “ultimate comic book movie” with Maguire, Jackman, Stewart, McKellan, Snipes, etc. but not also bring back their *own* legacy actors like Evans and RDJ?

It’s not desperate it was inevitable. They were developing this saga that was always going to be like this back in 2018 and 19, *at the height of their popularity*.

People are just conflating Marvel’s recent spotty track record with the stunt-ish multiverse shenanigans that have been in the works and happening since before any “desperation” or bad press/reviews/box office.

NicoleIlieva2026-01-27 17:26

>They were developing this saga that was always going to be like this back in 2018 and 19, *at the height of their popularity*.

I've seen you state this multiple times, yet the actual MCU content we have seen tells a different story.

RDJ as Doom is not the same as all your other examples. RDJ as Doom exists because they needed "RDJ returns as different important character" hype to get people talking. They had the rights for Doom since 2019 and yet he only appears (with no build-up) for the first time in 2025. Meanwhile, they had 3 different versions of Kang and tied all Multiverse shenanigans to him.

The projects we had in phase 4-5 clearly showed they switched course. They even fumbled their Kang plans by not going with their first ending for Quantumania.

Doom was not the 2026 all along, remember that 2025 Kang Dynasty?

FictionFantom2026-01-27 18:23

In the original Secret Wars, Doom was not the main villain going in either. It was a twist in the story.

If the MCU wanted Doom to be a twist in the story, you can’t announce Secret Wars with Doom running around the MCU and expect no one to spoil the twist for everybody. So what do you do? You make people think Doom isn’t coming at all.

RDJ was always coming back. Him coming back as Doom is likely just capitalizing on similar archetypes between these characters instead of choosing to do the easy thing and bring Iron Man back. It’s an opportunity to do something *interesting* with the multiverse concept.

When you’re desperate you bet on a sure thing. You don’t blindly throw $100M at a potentially divisive creative choice unless they believed it was a really good story—because it *has* to be in order to make the most amount of money.

tincancan152026-01-27 16:29

Because RDJ is expensive.

Dry-Log84692026-01-27 16:35

loll

riegspsych3252026-01-27 23:47

and this is why I think the next 2 Avengers might be the only time we see Doom. Marvel won’t want to shell out another $40mil to have RDJ appear in a First Steps sequel, nor would he want to end his MCU tenure as a villain

And if they recast, that new actor would always be in RDJ’s shadow. Hard to follow up on a version of Doom played by the mega franchise’s biggest star that would have already fought 25+ years of Marvel movie characters in 2 Avengers films

GreenGoblinNX2026-01-28 01:43

They really shit the bed with Doom. It doesn't really matter what the movies says he is, the audience is going to see him a just some Tony Stark variant. They can try to PR spin it all they want, it just comes across as a move born of pathetic desperation.

Safe-Finding-43762026-01-27 16:34

Because contrary to what the small minority will tell you, theyre not reliant on iron man and his death was important. Its important to let it breath a little.

the-dandy-man2026-01-27 16:34

I mean. They kinda did in *What If…?*

Which is about the only way they could bring him back because RDJ is an expensive “break glass in case of emergency” kind of move at this point, which is what they’re doing with doomsday.

I guess they could introduce iron man variants played by other people but how well do you think they would go over?

Dry-Log84692026-01-27 16:40

right

FerrusManlyManus2026-01-27 16:39

This is the problem with the multiverse.

The stakes are much lower.

Oh Black Widow died? Here’s an almost the exact same version of her from another universe. Ditto with Tony or anyone else.

Iron Man did show up several times in earlier seasons of What If along with the other original Avengers. So at least they used him a bit there.

AnonymousFriend802026-01-27 17:22

Having a multiverse isn't a magic cure all for storytelling. The only character to get a second chance that way was Gamora and Thanos, and it wasn't a multiverse thing, but time traveling. And even when we see a different version of a character, they are essentially a new character, as they are not the same. Peter lost his Gamora and had to come to terms with this new one not being her. Imagine the drama of having lost someone important to you, and someone who looks exactly like them, and has a lot of the same background as them, but not the memories or feelings they have for you.

This isn't Rick and Morty. We are not replacing characters with essentially clones of them from somewhere else.

FerrusManlyManus2026-01-27 19:39

Right and good on Marvel for not doing that. But having basically countless versions of our heroes, some barely different from the ones we know, cheapens things a bit.

What If was especially egregious with this. Watcher talking about watching a hero do X countless times over countless universes.

AnonymousFriend802026-01-27 20:12

It doesn't cheapen if if they never go down that path. If anything it opens the possibility of getting some of these obscure versions of these characters to show up.

Spiderverse was really good.

FerrusManlyManus2026-01-27 22:59

Did you not watch What If? The multiverse is enormous. They talk about it constantly. They just barely show it.

There are apparently almost countless times across an enormous number of universes, where Riri Williams dies in the same place under the same circumstances.

A giant multiverse like that is not narratively a good idea.

juances192026-01-27 18:19

I mean it *could* be used that way... but they aren't. Even with Gamora they made it a point that she's not the same Gamora and it completely changed her relationship to the rest of the guardians. As long as the writers don't get lazy...

crumbsalt2026-01-27 19:34

“The stakes are much lower”

See: Incursions

FerrusManlyManus2026-01-27 19:37

Right, and in these stories the multiverse basically ends.

Because having near infinite Starks and everyone else is weird.

disneylegospider12026-01-27 17:00

Because they value his ending and don’t want to cheapen it just so nerds who can’t get over things can soy out and enjoy only the same 5 heroes?

MCU iron man is dead, and he had a great ending that has impacted other characters and the universe, all of whom would be negatively impacted progression wise if a random iron man variant was just placed in the MCU. Until the ENTIRE MCU hard reboots and we have an all new marvel world, keep him out of the current MCU.

SpiderFan2412026-01-27 17:39

I think to make it more impactful for when they do it in Doomsday, Secret Wars or the post-Secret Wars soft reboot.

labbla2026-01-27 18:43

lol you'll see him again in Doomsday and/or Secret Wars. That's why you pay RDJ so much money to come back in the first place.

Shack6912026-01-27 19:41

Because it cheapens character development, drafting a multiversal copy is basically a big reset button so you should only use it if the character can be distinct both sides of their initial death, Iron Man is a character where that really isn’t possible and shouldn’t be done because you could easily do it better with another similar character.

Steve is the only character they’ve brought back but even then he’s likely not going to be Captain America which means it’ll be a completely different arc than if they’d just kept him around after or brought him back 1 to 1 as to how he was after any of the previous movies.

eagc72026-01-27 20:23

He was in What If, so they did.

Endgam2026-01-27 22:55

*What do you think casting RDJ as Doctor Doom is actually about?*

BartleBossy2026-01-27 23:08

I refuse to believe this isnt a bot.