Robert Downey Jr. addresses Quentin Tarantino's Marvel comments: 'There's enough room for everything'
While his tenure as part of Earth's Mightiest Heroes might be over, that doesn't mean Robert Downey Jr. has stopped defending the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The actor, who recently released his documentary Sr., took a moment to address Quentin Tarantino's recent remarks on how the "Marvel-ization of Hollywood" has killed the modern-day movie star by making its superheroes — not the actors — the focus of their respective films.
"I think our opinions on these matters say a lot about us. I think that we are in a time and place that I unwittingly contributed to, where IP has taken precedence over principle and personality. But it's a double-edged sword," he told Deadline. "A piece of IP is only as good as the human talent you get to represent it, and you can have some great IP even if it's coming from an auteur or a national treasure of a writer-director, and if you don't have the right kind of artist playing that role, you'll never know how good it could have been."
Amy Sussman/Getty Images; Daniele Venturelli/WireImage Robert Downey Jr. and Quentin Tarantino
Instead, Downey Jr. said that arguing about which type of film held more artistic merit was simply a "waste of time."
"I've had my reactions in the past when people said things that I felt were discrediting my integrity … I go, 'You know what? Let's just get over it. We're all a community. There's enough room for everything,'" he said. "And thank God for Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water. That's all I have to say. We need the big stuff to make room for films like Armageddon Time."
The Iron Man star, who is currently working on multiple projects, emphasized that it was important to take a step back and appreciate how the entertainment industry and perspectives toward it "are always changing" before deciding to cast the first stone.
"Before we cast aspersions on each other — undergo your own renaissance and see if it doesn't change your mind a little bit," he said. "Reinvent yourself before you decide that somebody else doesn't know what they're doing or that something is keeping you from doing your best, or that something is better than something else."
In fact, Downey Jr. added that he believes the industry will "change again" in the future. "This is just where we're at," he concluded. "And to accept it and be grateful that you get to participate is the right place to start."
Throughout the last month, Tarantino has repeatedly slammed the comic book film franchise, declaring he has no interest in directing one of its future installments and claiming that they've eliminated space for other, smaller films. His comments have since sparked criticism from Shang-Chi actor Simu Liu and Pulp Fiction star Samuel L. Jackson.
The Once Upon A Time director is, of course, not the first to publicly denounce Marvel movies. Martin Scorsese notoriously deemed them "not cinema" back in 2019, which Downey Jr. accepted at the time. "I appreciate his opinion because I think it's like anything," he said on the Howard Stern Show. "We need all of the different perspectives so we can come to center and move on."
While Marvel might be in his rearview mirror, Downey Jr. acknowledged that there are things he's come to miss about playing Tony Stark. "Being in the trenches with Kevin Feige throughout. The beginning, with Jon Favreau, it's like a beautiful dream now. The middle, with Shane Black on Iron Man 3, we'd just had Exton and shot it mostly in Wilmington N.C. It was idyllic and subversive," he told Deadline. "And The End, when I realized I'd made so many close friends in the MCU cast."
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