Robert Downey Jr. Teases ‘We’ll See’ of Possible Iron Man Return: I ‘Want to Keep It Classy’

Robert Downey Jr. first played Iron Man in the 2008 original movie before reprising the role in nine more Marvel films

Robert Downey Jr. isn’t giving any type of definitive answer on a potential Iron Man return.

The actor, who played Tony Stark in the Avengers and standalone movies before the character died in last summer’s Endgame, appeared on the Today show where cohost Hoda Kotb asked if he was sad to see his celebrated hero meet his end. Downey Jr. was on Wednesday’s episode to promote his new movie Dolittle.

“Now that I’m middle aged, to be honest, you start looking at the back nine and you go, oh this is part of the journey. Things end and everyone is going somewhere,” Downey Jr. said.

But when Kotb teased how Iron Man might be poised to somehow make a return, the actor joked that it was mostly people going through the “stages of grief” before choosing to stay neutral.

“I am so pleased that I wound up where I have, I’m very fortunate. So I’m not the kind of guy… I want to keep it classy. We’ll see,” he answered.

In an interview on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show last year, the actor, 54, was asked about having never been nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“Because it’s a super hero movie? The performance is excellent, it is a totally believable character,” host Howard Stern said to Downey, who has played the iconic superhero in ten Marvel films, beginning in 2008, including this year’s Avengers: Endgame.

“I’m so glad you brought this up, because there was some talk about it and I said ‘let’s not,’” Downey Jr. explained of a potential Oscar nomination.

During the interview, the actor also reacted to Oscar-wining director Martin Scorsese’s comments about the Marvel films, including that he doesn’t consider them to be “cinema.”

“I appreciate his opinion because I think, it’s like anything, we need all of the different perspectives so we can come to centre and move on,” Downey Jr. told Stern.

Still, though the actor said he wasn’t offended by the remarks, he did say that Scorsese’s statement “makes no sense.”

“I’ll tell you the truth, I didn’t expect [the Marvel Cinematic Universe] to become what it became and it is this very large, multi-headed Hydra at this point,” Downey Jr. said. “I’ve always had other interests, and according to Scorsese, it’s not cinema so I have to take a look at that, you know?”

Dolittle is in theaters Friday.