Despite his B-List status in the comic books, Iron Man quickly became the MCU's most popular superhero. As a result, we soon saw Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark make his presence felt in multiple franchises, including Spider-Man: Homecoming. With that, Peter Parker became "Iron Boy" in the eyes of many fans, while Spider-Man: Far From Home devoted a lot of time to the fallout from Tony's death.
Spider-Man: No Way Home helped the wall-crawler move out of Iron Man's shadow, and during a recent interview with Jeff Goldsmith on The Q&A podcast (via The Playlist), writer Chris McKenna talked about moving on from the Armoured Avenger.
"I think honestly that's a non-starter in the halls of Marvel, at least in our experience," he said of possibly bringing Iron Man back in any form. "They just don't really like constantly evoking [Iron Man]. I mean, obviously, Tony cast such a large shadow even after Endgame - which we dealt with in Far From Home - but I think everyone felt like we can't just keep on going to the Tony well."
There have been rumblings that we might see an Iron Man Variant in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but any sort of resurrection for the hero is clearly not in the works at Marvel Studios.
This is hardly surprising, as it would rob Tony's Avengers: Endgame sacrifice of the lasting impact it had, and even finding a way to bring Iron Man back for Secret Wars feels like it would be a mistake. Ironheart is on the way, however, while the MCU still has War Machine and perhaps even Iron Lad if Kevin Feige and company decide to introduce that Kang the Conqueror Variant.
How would you feel about seeing more of Iron Man in the MCU?