The Russos Reflect On Convincing Robert Downey To Return As Villainous Iron Man In CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

Joe and Anthony Russo have looked back at being tasked with convincing Robert Downey Jr. to return to the MCU for Captain America: Civil War, a movie that saw Iron Man framed as the main antagonist...

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By JoshWilding - Mar 15, 2025 11:03 AM EST

Filed Under: Captain America: Civil War

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

When the news first broke that Robert Downey Jr. was being eyed to reprise his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man in Captain America 3, few could have imagined it would be for an adaptation of Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's Civil War.

During a "Marvel Event" held in 2014, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced that the movie would be titled Captain America: Serpent Society. However, he was just trolling us as Chris Evans, Downey, and Chadwick Boseman soon hit the stage alongside to reveal the Russo Brothers would be helming Captain America: Civil War.

What followed was one of Marvel Studios' best movies; an Avengers-level event, it saw Earth's Mightiest Heroes split in two following the introduction of the Sokovia Accords. It wasn't quite on the same scale as the comic book it shared a name with but it did bring Spider-Man into the MCU, making many a dream come true in the process.

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter before reuniting with Downey for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars (where the Oscar-winner will portray the villainous Doctor Doom), Joe and Anthony Russo reflected on enlisting the actor as Iron Man for their follow-up to Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

"We pitched Kevin on the idea and Kevin goes, 'All right, I buy it. Now you guys got to go get Downey,'" Anthony recalled. "And I was like, 'What do you mean we got to go get Downey? Aren’t you coming?' And he didn’t."

Joe added, "Downey was sitting on a chaise lounge, splayed out like a king, on the roof of his office in Venice. Ant and I showed up and we’ve been rehearsing this pitch, and you’re literally pitching the biggest movie star in the world to take his giant cash cow character and convert it into a villain."

"In a Captain America movie," Anthony interjected before Joe pointed out, "In a movie that wasn’t even titled after his character. And it was the pitch of our lives. And he said, 'Yes, let’s do it.' He liked the risk, to Robert’s credit, and that choice led the explosive upside to Infinity War and Endgame."

At the time, Downey was believed to be out of contract and managed to score a hugely lucrative deal that included the Avengers movies mentioned by Joe.

Ultimately, he helped turn the third Captain America movie into a $1 billion franchise, though that momentum sadly didn't continue with last month's Captain America: Brave New World. Downey's latest return came after meetings with Disney CEO Bob Iger and Feige, with him only agreeing to return provided it wasn't as Iron Man.

Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released in May 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive in May 2027.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD Spoilers - Was The Movie's Post-Credits Scene Really That Bad?

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SPIDER-MAN: Tom Holland Credits Robert Downey Jr. For Stopping His CIVIL WAR Scenes From Being Cut Down

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32 Comments

MakeAmericaGrea - 3/15/2025, 11:42 AM

Will they reflect on convincing thousands of conservatives to return to theaters for MCU movies?

UncleHarm1 - 3/15/2025, 11:43 AM

@MakeAmericaGrea - Why lol

MakeAmericaGrea - 3/15/2025, 11:55 AM

@UncleHarm1 -

If too few people go to theaters, more theaters go away.

UncleHarm1 - 3/15/2025, 11:57 AM

@MakeAmericaGrea -

vectorsigma - 3/15/2025, 11:47 AM

Overrated.

MyCoolYoung - 3/15/2025, 11:48 AM

Granted, I know there's a sense of "It's their movie, how are you going to tell them?" But I didn't see him as the villain. There were two sides with conflicting ideologies, and in the climax, he learned that a 100 year old assassin killed his parents he was entitled to some get-back.

ObserverIO - 3/15/2025, 4:01 PM

@MyCoolYoung - Antagonist mighthave been a better term.

MyCoolYoung - 3/15/2025, 6:03 PM

@ObserverIO - 100% agree

bkmeijer1 - 3/15/2025, 11:49 AM

I thought RDJ came to Feige wanting to work again, and then Feige said ''I got just the thing.''

McMurdo - 3/15/2025, 11:49 AM

"you’re literally pitching the biggest movie star in the world to take his giant cash cow character and convert it into a villain"

Deja vu.

MakeAmericaGrea - 3/15/2025, 11:56 AM

@McMurdo -

Just curious, what do you mean?

epc1122 - 3/15/2025, 12:05 PM

@MakeAmericaGrea - I think because that’s what he’s doing now by portraying doctor doom in the upcoming avengers movies.

SpiderParker - 3/15/2025, 12:06 PM

@MakeAmericaGrea - If you actually read, you would know they were talking about Civil War and not Secret Wars.

MosquitoFarmer - 3/15/2025, 1:12 PM

@McMurdo - Technically, that's only if Downey's Victor Von Doom is the Stark variant version. If they just strictly happen to look like each other but are entirely seperate characters (like Evans as both Cap and Johnny Storm) then it doesn't really apply. But, either way, pitching Downey to play the villain while his contract is up, etc., is very deja vu.

McMurdo - 3/15/2025, 3:45 PM

@MosquitoFarmer - I can all but guarantee he's a variant. It may not be revealed till secret Wars but he's undoubtedly going to be a variant so that Holland's Spidey can play off of it.

MosquitoFarmer - 3/15/2025, 4:26 PM

@McMurdo - I've long said that they will play into Parker's recognition/idolization of Tony and the obvious likeness, but I've also said that it's fully in the realm of possibility that Doom (if he were indeed seperate) can simply notice the infatuation Peter has, and certainly given he understands the full multiversal nature of it all better than anyone else, and take advantage of him solely for that reason. It can really roll either way with the same result (more likely going to go in the variant direction), but I think it adds an extra little level of intelligence if he manipulates without that having that paritcular connection to Peter Parker.

soberchimera - 3/15/2025, 12:03 PM

They should have just done Serpent Society instead of Civil War for Cap 3. The Civil "War" was more of a Civil "Sparring Match" at the airport.

Arthorious - 3/15/2025, 12:23 PM

@soberchimera - I’d say blame BvS for it. From what I hear they had a different idea for Cap 3 till WB announced BvS

Matchesz - 3/15/2025, 2:27 PM

@soberchimera - agreed. MCU should have definitely been more of a slow burn. We shouldnt even had Thanos yet imo when we still got/had all these other villains still. But Arthorious is right they wanted to compete with a future flop movie which ultimately dragged the MCU down a little.

JacobsLadder - 3/15/2025, 12:09 PM

A $20 million conversation, at least. Some reports have RDJ making a whole lot more than that. At least he didn't phone in the performance like virtually the entire cast of Electric State.

Amuro - 3/15/2025, 12:10 PM

"Villainous" ? Wasn't the whole point of the movie that no side was better than the other and that they just ended up destroying humanity's greatest hope with their conflict and the politics around it ? Do they even understand their own movie ?

To be fair, Civil War was more of a commercial stunt than anything. Team Cap vs. Team Iron-Man ? That was a cool promo. Too bad I didn't really feel it during the movie. It was such a waste.

bobevanz - 3/15/2025, 12:10 PM

I wouldn't say he was the villain in Civil War. He found out the his parents' killer was still alive and Steve covered for him because that's his only friend left from his time. If anything Cap was villain

bobevanz - 3/15/2025, 12:11 PM

How much does an edit button cost

RegularPoochie - 3/15/2025, 2:58 PM

@bobevanz -

TheVisionary25 - 3/15/2025, 12:18 PM

I wouldn’t call RDJ’s Tony in that as a villain…

He’s essentially the co-lead of that films and maybe an antagonist at worse but that’s it.

It’s the beauty of that film that you can see both sides of Tony & Cap’s ideologies atleast imo which adds to its strength of it.

Anyway , glad it worked out how it did since it was a really good film and still remains one of the best in the MCU!!.

GirshwinDavies - 3/15/2025, 12:23 PM

Team Iron Man all the way

DocSpock - 3/15/2025, 12:24 PM

The 4 Russo MCU movies as a whole are one of the biggest achievements in movie history, and the culmination of millions of comic book readers' dreams.

Which makes the current MCU junk hurt so much more.

dragon316 - 3/15/2025, 12:37 PM

Actor have office sit in

AnEye - 3/15/2025, 12:51 PM

@dragon316 - Yes. Believe it or not human beings do have homes with a room called an "office."

Battinson - 3/15/2025, 1:53 PM

I still wanna know why Tony got a teenager with no big battle experience to help in the fight at the airport

GarthRanzz - 3/15/2025, 3:33 PM

Ummm at best Cap is a loyal friend but for the most part he is pretty much the villain. Age of Ultron, I wouldn't label Tony a villain but he certainly cre

AvatarSupremacy - 3/15/2025, 5:39 PM

We were spoiled and didn't even realize....
Mainline Marvel characters leading fun action adventure sci fi films that range from good to great?
For like 5 years in a row you could walk into a theater and see Iron Man and Cap in movies that where actually good. What a time.

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The Russos Reflect On Convincing Robert Downey To Return As Villainous Iron Man In CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

Joe and Anthony Russo have looked back at being tasked with convincing Robert Downey Jr. to return to the MCU for Captain America: Civil War, a movie that saw Iron Man framed as the main antagonist...

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD Spoilers - Was The Movie's Post-Credits Scene Really That Bad?

SPIDER-MAN: Tom Holland Credits Robert Downey Jr. For Stopping His CIVIL WAR Scenes From Being Cut Down

DISCLAIMER: As a user generated site and platform, ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and "Safe Harbor" provisions.