A new report claims that Iron Man and Spider-Man will reunite in Avengers: Secret Wars (2027) – despite one of them technically being dead.
We’re five years out from Avengers: Endgame (2019), but the Marvel Cinematic Universe is still dealing with the consequences both on and off-screen. Following the exit of Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) and Chris Evans (Captain America), the franchise has struggled to find its new narrative path.
After a string of financial and critical flops, the studio is reportedly taking time to reorient its future. That means just the one Marvel movie in 2024 (Deadpool & Wolverine) and a big question mark on upcoming mega projects, such as the fifth and sixth Avengers movies.
If the latest report from industry insiders is correct, Marvel has a very specific approach to ensuring these projects rake in the big bucks: bringing back the characters they know audiences already love.
According to My Time To Shine Hello – who has previously leaked several details about future Marvel projects – Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark/Iron Man and Tom Holland’s Peter Parker (AKA Spider-Man) will meet on screen in the sixth Avengers film, Secret Wars.
Tony Stark famously sacrificed himself in Endgame – and Marvel dealt with Peter Parker’s grief in his second solo film, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) – so the real question is how Iron Man and Spider-Man will reunite. However, considering that the film will deal with the Multiverse, it’s safe to assume that this won’t be the same Tony Stark previously seen in the MCU and will instead be a Variant.
Some have even suggested that this Variant Iron Man could be a villain, which would definitely give the pair’s reunion a unique twist. Before Downey Jr. left the MCU, his character was very much a parental figure and role model to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
For now, this is very much a rumor – and even if Downey Jr. were to return to Marvel, we suspect that would be kept “secret” à la the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) – so we’d try not to get too excited. Downey Jr. himself has been relatively vague about the possibility of returning to the MCU. However, he remains positive about his time starring in the franchise – something he is often credited with helming – and in January, bemoaned the fact that his work as Tony Stark “went unnoticed because of the genre.”
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has had stronger words on Iron Man’s possible return. In December, he said that the studio would never “magically undo” the character’s heroic death. If we’re being technical, though, his return as a Variant wouldn’t technically reverse anything, and it also wouldn’t technically count as Downey Jr. reprising the role, as it would technically be a different character. Maybe it’s wishful thinking on our part, but if you need us, we’ll be manifesting his stint as Iron Man 2.0.