Robert Downey Jr. Talks About Playing A Villainous (?) 'Iron Man' In CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
Robert Downey Jr. talks here about why he chose Captain America: Civil War over Iron Man 4, how both Tony Stark and Steve Rogers will need to undergo some changes to end up coming to blows, and whether or not he views his character's transformation into that of a villain...
The news that Robert Downey Jr. would star in Captain America 3 was perhaps the biggest and most exciting story of 2014, especially as it meant that the teammates would go into battle against each other just like in Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's critically acclaimed Civil War. Of course, the title later being revealed as Captain America: Civil War helped to build a lot of excitement!
Talking to Empire Magazine recently, Downey weighed in on why exactly he chose to become part of the threequel and dropped some hints about what his role there could mean for Tony Stark's future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "They said to me, 'If we have you, we can do this, or Cap 3 has to be something else. It's nice to feel needed. And at this point it's about helping each other, too. I look at it as a competition and I go, 'Wow, maybe if these two franchises teamed up and I can take even a lesser position, with people I like and directors I respect, maybe we can keep things bumping along." It's a valid point, especially when you take into account the fact that Iron Man is the only Marvel Studios superhero to have earned over $1 billion in a solo movie!
Of course, as exciting as this all is, it's still hard to imagine the Tony Stark we've all come to know and love transforming almost into the far more responsible version from Civil War who believes that superheroes should register with the government for the safety of the public. Downey however sees this as a natural evolution of his character, and a believable change based on what happens in Avengers: Age of Ultron. "It's natural to change your views," he says. "The main thing to me is, what sort of incident could occur, and what sort of framework could we find Tony in? The clues about where we might find him next are in Ultron. But what would it take for Tony to completely turn around everything he's stood for? Joss brings this up all the time. It's kind of weird that these guys would have all these throw downs all over planet Earth and yet when the movie's over, nobody minds. What would the American government do if this were real? Wouldn't it be interesting to see Tony doing something you wouldn't imagine?"
The events of the comic book series would see Iron Man transformed into an almost villainous figure, manipulating his fellow heroes and even cloning Thor! Could Marvel's most popular superhero be about to become their biggest bad guy? "I wouldn't put it that way. The biggest question is, for Chris and for Cap, how do we bring Cap to a place where people go, 'Man, I never thought I would see such a vast change in Steve.' After you see Snowpiercer, you're like, 'I want to see a little bit of that guy.'" What do you guys think of these comments? Sound off below.