We haven’t seen – or at least haven’t heard – the last of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As confirmed by none other than Jeff Goldblum in a recent interview with Buzzfeed, RDJ will be reprising his role as Iron Man/Tony Stark in Marvel’s animated What If? series, which is being produced for the Disney+ streaming service.
Goldblum, who played Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok, revealed that he will be reprising his role for the animated series. Speaking a bit further, he revealed that Iron Man will be a part of his seemingly cosmic-heavy episode. The whole thing started when the actor was asked if he will be coming back for Thor: Love and Thunder at the end of the interview.
“Hey. Well, we’re talking about it in fact. You know, I hope so. I love Taika Waititi. He’s a great director and a friend of mine,” Goldblum said. “So I hope so, but I played the part again a couple of days ago. I went to the Disney Studios and I recorded the Grandmaster’s voice for an episode of a show that’s going to be on Disney+ called What If…? where it’s an animated version of all the characters we know and love from Marvel. And this episode included the Grandmaster and Iron Man, so Robert Downey will do a voice in that. And Korg, Taika Waititi, had already recorded his voice for that. So yeah, I enjoyed it for a couple of hours. I enjoyed doing that again. So the Grandmaster is well.”
This should come as welcome news for fans of the MCU. Downey’s Tony Stark heroically gave his life to save the day at the end of Avengers: Endgame, so his role in this universe, more or less, is wrapped up. However, What If? will be taking a look at alternate reality scenarios with the characters we already know and love. So we’ll be seeing Iron Man in a scenario that takes place outside of the main MCU continuity. That will allow for Downey to come back, without sullying what was accomplished at the conclusion of Endgame.
RDJ is far from the only actor reprising his role for the series. A ton of MCU favorites will be back. The current list is as follows.
- Michael B. Jordan – Erik “Killmonger” Stevens
- Sebastian Stan – Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier
- Josh Brolin – Thanos
- Mark Ruffalo – Bruce Banner / Hulk
- Tom Hiddleston – Loki
- Samuel L. Jackson – Nick Fury
- Chris Hemsworth – Thor
- Natalie Portman – Jane Foster
- Taika Waititi – Korg
- Hayley Atwell – Peggy Carter
- Stanley Tucci – Abraham Erskine
- Toby Jones – Arnim Zola
- Chadwick Boseman – Black Panther
- Karen Gillan – Nebula
- Jeremy Renner – Hawkeye
- Paul Rudd – Ant-Man
- Michael Douglas – Hank Pym
- David Dastmalchian – Kurt
- Neal McDonough – Dum Dum Dugan
- Dominic Cooper – Howard Stark
- Sean Gunn – Kraglin
- Djimon Hounsou – Korath
- Michael Rooker – Yondu
- Chris Sullivan – Taserface
Most importantly, Jeffrey Wright has been cast to play The Watcher, an all-knowing celestial being who will serve as our guide on this journey through these various tales.
What If? arrives on Disney+ in summer 2021.
So what do you think? Are you excited to have RDJ coming back as Iron Man for the show? Whose alternate-reality story are you most interested in? Join in on the conversation over on Facebook or Twitter!
