‘It can be done’: Kevin Feige discusses potential of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man return

Kevin Feige has revealed it’s possible that Robert Downey Jr. could reprise his role as Iron Man in a future Marvel movie.

The 59-year-old actor played the snarky hero from the eponymous 2008 flick until the character's gut-wrenching death in 2019’s ‘Avengers: Endgame’, but the Marvel boss has now explained that thanks to multi-verse projects like ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’, Downey Jr.’s iteration of Iron Man could return as long as "great care is taken" with both story and character.

During a conversation with DiscussingFilm in which he reflected on upholding Hugh Jackman’s legacy as Wolverine, while meaningfully adding to the character in the eagerly-awaited picture, Feige said: "That’s the key, right? How do you do it in a way that maintains what has come before, and in a great way?

"And we’ve been spending, you know, the last two-plus years figuring that out for Wolverine. So, what’s to come? We’ll see.

"We’re just proud that we, I think, have figured it out for Wolverine. I think Hugh’s appearance and starring role in ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ is a great sign that it can be done — if great care is taken."

Although the Marvel chief no longer rules out bringing Downey Jr. back, Feige previously insisted Iron Man’s story was finished and emphasised the studio didn’t want to "magically undo" the character’s heroic sacrifice in ‘Avengers: Endgame’.

He told Vanity Fair: "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."

Meanwhile, Downey Jr. had initially said he was happy where he left the character, though has recently revealed he wouldn’t close the door on suiting up as the superhero again because the character is "just crazily in [his] DNA".

He told Jodie Foster during a chat for Variety's ‘Actors on Actors’ series: "[Iron Man is] probably the most like-me character, strangely, I’ve ever played, even though he’s way cooler than I am."