Robert Downey Jr. says he'd 'happily' return as Iron Man: It's 'part of my DNA'

Robert Downey Jr. would "happily" return to play Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"It's too integral a part of my DNA," Downey told Esquire of playing Tony Stark, in an interview published Monday. "That role chose me."

The newly minted Oscar winner also praised Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, saying to "never, ever bet against" the producer: "It is a losing bet. He's the house. He will always win."

Downey played Iron Man from 2007 until his heartbreaking death in 2019's "Avengers: Endgame."

Though anything is possible with the MCU's penchant for multiverse storytelling, Feige himself has defended the moment Iron Man sacrificed himself to defeat Thanos in the film.

"We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again," Feige told Vanity Fair last year. "We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way."

The comments come amid Marvel fatigue among filmgoers.

In recent years, the comic-book adaptation machine struggled to deliver hits both critically and commercially, at the box office and on the small screen. That includes 2023's "She-Hulk," "Ant-Man: Quantumania" and "The Marvels," the latter of which had the franchise’s worst-ever opening weekend box office, with $47 million domestically. For 2024, Marvel has only one film in the chamber, the Ryan Reynolds-led "Deadpool & Wolverine."

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A return for Iron Man could also mean a return for Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts, though there would likely be some rewrites.

Paltrow revealed to Esquire in the same interview that she stopped learning her lines for her character, who is Tony Stark's assistant and wife, because Downey frequently improvised his lines.

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"There would be this process of (director) Jon Favreau and Robert and I going into Jon's trailer in the morning and Robert being like, 'I'm not ... saying these lines' and throwing them out," Paltrow told the outlet. "And then live improving either in the trailer or on the set.

"I think in order for something to feel alive for Robert, it has to feel fresh, and he makes it fresh by making it feel like it was just invented," she continued. "So many of those famous lines were written 10 minutes before we said them."

Contributing: Kelly Lawler

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Robert Downey Jr. says he'd make Iron Man, Marvel return 'happily'