Can the Avengers survive without Robert Downey Jr, the Iron Man who started it all 10 years ago?
TEN years after Robert Downey Jr founded the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man, will he survive the all-star superhero mashup Avengers: Infinity War? With his contract up after this movie, speculation is growing Tony Stark will be gone for good.
Entertainment
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LAST Monday, surrounded by thousands of fans at a flashy event in Singapore to launch the new Avengers movie, with chants of “R-D-J! R-D-J!” rippling through the crowd, Marvel’s No.1 superhero Robert Downey Jr was asked to sum up what has changed since the release of the first Iron Man movie back in 2008.
“Well obviously,” he said, dripping irony, “we’re getting a little more attention than we used to.”
That’s an understatement.
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After 18 movies and more than $19 billion at the global box office, the first decade of the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes to a head this week with the release of the all-star superhero mashup Avengers: Infinity War.
The preceding Marvel film, Black Panther, is to date the highest grossing film of 2018 in Australia, racking in $40.2 million. Advance ticket sales for Infinity War are far outstripping that pace.
The new movie sees a character teased in the very first Avengers, the huge purple alien Thanos (played by Josh Brolin) finally make good on his promise to collect all six Infinity Stones, powerful objects held in various places from Vision’s forehead to the time-bending necklace around Doctor Strange’s neck. Once assembled, Thanos will have the power to wipe out half the universe.
To defeat him the Avengers — who fractured in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War — must reunite and call in back-up from the wider reaches of the MCU, from Wakanda (the home of Black Panther) to space (enter the Guardians of the Galaxy).
Despite the dangerous stakes, in one scene Downey’s billionaire industrialist Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, is seen mid-battle taking a call from his fiancee Pepper Potts.
“Damn well better!” laughs Downey.
The actor has been keeping his better half, film producer Susan Downey, happy since 2005. They have two children, Exton, six, and Avri, 3½.
After years of drug problems and run-ins with the law, Downey was practically unemployable when Iron Man flew into his life. Now he’s godfather to a generation of actors and fans who have witnessed the MCU change the way we immerse ourselves in movies.
There’s absolutely no understating Downey’s status within this Universe.
“He started this all,” says Trinh Tran, who has risen from an assistant with Marvel Studios back on the first Iron Man to executive producer of Civil War and Infinity War.
“When people ask me my favourite character, I have to say Tony Stark because he started this 10 years ago with Iron Man. I fell in love with the character, like everybody else did, and I invested 10 years in this character, so he holds a special place in my heart.”
For Karen Gillan, the intimidation factor of merging her Guardians character Nebula into the wider Avengers family on Infinity War was lessened by Downey’s welcoming gestures.
“It’s the lunches (he) throws for all of us,” she says. “He gets all of the cast together and we all socialise and he gives us the most beautiful cuisine. He’s leading the charge very well.”
Downey, naturally, has a quip for that: “That’s why the budgets have ballooned.”
Joe Russo and his brother Anthony entered the MCU with Captain America: Winter Soldier. They directed Downey for the first time in Civil War.
“He’s incredible,” says Russo. “He’s one of the most warm, inclusive human beings. We love him dearly, we have a lot of fun working with him.
“There’s a reason he’s the biggest star in the world.”
Though Downey is a pro at having fun with the adulation — he’s been acting since he was five and properly famous since the 1980s — stardom is not his main driver here.
“We talk about this all the time,” says the 53-year-old, “it’s about the fellowship of like-minded creatives that has continued along.”
Over the years, he’s kept an eye on MCU films even when he’s not played a part in them, whether that’s calling a new player — a la Guardians’ Chris Pratt — to say welcome, or just appreciating the movies as a fan.
“As they come out, I don’t feel that I have all that much to do with these other ventures, but I appreciate aspects of them so much,” Downey says.
He calls Guardians of the Galaxy a “dark horse”, reckons there’d be no Infinity War if Doctor Strange hadn’t been made first, and thought Thor: Ragnarok was “mind-blowing”.
He believes the trick of the MCU — what has made the films so unendingly successful — is that it never serves up reheated leftovers.
“I read in some magazine that the number one voted moment was the airport fight in Civil War because so many of the superheroes (were seen together). Now the universe has expanded even more (in Infinity War),” he says.
Sorry @MarkRuffalo - the #ScienceBros are over! It's all about @RobertDowneyJr & "The Batch" #AvengersInfinityWar #AvengersSG #TheBatch pic.twitter.com/mpimdM2ccf
— neala johnson (@nealajohnson) April 16, 2018
“But one thing the creatives don’t want to do is do a bigger repeat of something that has already worked well. So the challenge this time was, how do you better expand something without repeating what has already been executed well before? I call it the anti-process — usually if something works, we’re just going to keep doing that!”
Downey’s Marvel contract is up after Infinity War and next year’s as yet-untitled fourth Avengers, fuelling speculation that Iron Man may not make it out alive.
“When I started this I was in my 40s, now I’m in my 50s — quote-unquote young and then looking at middle-age,” he says. Accordingly, his characterisation of Tony Stark has followed suit: “Your values tend to change, so Tony’s mirroring that, I hope.”
But middle age doesn’t mean Iron Man’s best work is behind him.
“We always want to try to make it better,” he says. “I think this time we might have nailed it.”
If Iron Man or another of the original Avengers — be it Chris Evans’ Captain America, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner/Hulk, Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye or Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow — does meet their maker in these two forthcoming Avengers, is the MCU strong enough to forge on without them?
Russo chuckles.
“I mean, Black Panther is one of the most successful movies in history ... I think the Marvel Universe will be OK.”
“I think so,” agrees Tran. “We have so many characters we haven’t even touched upon ... The success of Black Panther — that’s the world embracing something new and letting us know: let’s give them more.”
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