Before there was a Marvel Cinematic Universe, there was Robert Downey Jr. standing in a cave building an Iron Man suit. Nobody knew where all of this was going.
Iron Man arrived in 2008, and what followed became one of the biggest movie franchises ever created. For Downey, that meant going from playing Tony Stark in what was essentially Marvel’s big gamble to becoming one of the faces most closely associated with the entire MCU.
Now Avengers: Endgame is back in theaters as Avengers: Endgame Encore, and it feels like a pretty good excuse to revisit something Downey said before the original movie opened in 2019. Why did these movies connect with so many people?
Robert Downey Jr. was there before the MCU became the MCU
It is almost strange to remember that Iron Man was once just a movie that needed to work. There was no Avengers yet. No decade-long Infinity Saga. No gigantic collection of interconnected movies and television shows.
There was Tony Stark. Downey’s performance gave Marvel a character audiences could immediately latch onto. Stark was brilliant, arrogant, funny, damaged and capable of making some spectacularly bad decisions.
And unlike a superhero who seemed completely untouchable, Tony constantly had to live with the consequences of those decisions. That became even more important as the MCU grew.
Why Marvel’s characters connected with audiences
Before Avengers: Endgame originally arrived in theaters, Downey spoke about why he believed Marvel’s movies and characters had resonated so strongly with audiences around the world.
By that point, fans had spent more than a decade with Tony Stark. They had watched him become Iron Man, join the Avengers, make mistakes, lose people, become a mentor and eventually face the biggest fight of his life.
The spectacle obviously mattered. Marvel movies could give audiences superheroes flying through the sky, alien invasions and battles involving dozens of characters. But those movies also worked because viewers cared about the people underneath the costumes.
Tony Stark was never just the armor. Steve Rogers was never just the shield. Thor was never just the hammer. The personalities, friendships, arguments and losses were what kept people coming back.
Click on the video below to hear Robert Downey Jr. talk about why he believed Marvel’s movies and characters connected so deeply with audiences around the world.
Avengers: Endgame became the end of an era
When Avengers: Endgame arrived in 2019, it carried more weight than the average superhero movie. It was paying off stories that had been building for years.
For Downey, it also brought Tony Stark’s journey to an emotional conclusion. That is one reason seeing the movie back on a big screen can hit a little differently now. Audiences know where Tony’s story goes, but they also know just how much the MCU changed after he was gone.
And now Downey is returning to Marvel in a completely different way.
Robert Downey Jr. is entering a new Marvel chapter
Downey is moving from Iron Man to Doctor Doom for Avengers: Doomsday. That alone would have sounded almost impossible back when audiences first watched Tony Stark announce, “I am Iron Man.”
Yet here we are.
Avengers: Endgame Encore adds new material connecting the earlier era of the MCU with what comes next, including Doctor Doom.
There is something fitting about Downey being part of both sides of that bridge. He helped launch this universe. Now, nearly two decades later, he is stepping back into it wearing a very different kind of mask.
Avengers: Endgame Encore is now playing in theaters.
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