Robert Downey Jr. revealed the conversation that led to his return to the MCU after hanging up his Iron Man suit five years ago.

The Oscar winner, 59, donned his well-used costume one final time for Avengers: End Game in 2019.

But now he’s slated to return to the MCU as Doctor Victor Von Doom in two upcoming MCU films, a move that left fans shocked, elated and bewildered during the revelation at San Diego Comic Con in June.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, he dished about the conversation with Kevin Feige and Bob Iger that paved the way for his return.

‘I had this instinct that I wanted to go to Bob Iger and I had an idea, outside of the cinematic universe, for how I could be of service to what’s going on in the [theme] parks,’ he explained.

Robert Downey Jr . revealed the conversation that led to his return to the MCU after hanging up his Iron Man suit five years ago

‘[My wife] Susan and I were sitting down with Feige and he said, ‘It just keeps occurring to me that if you were to come back …’ Susan was like, ‘Wait. Wait. Come back as what?”

The Chaplin star called Kevin a ‘very sophisticated, creative thinker.’

‘[Kevin said], ‘How can we not go backwards? How can we not disappoint expectations? How can we continue to beat expectations?’ 

‘And he brought up Victor Von Doom. And I looked into this character and I was like, ‘Wow.’ Later on, he goes, ‘Let’s get Victor Von Doom right.”

Next he met with Bob Iger, who liked the idea and sent the two men over to Walt Disney Imagineering, where the magic of all things Disney is quite literally made.

‘You wanna talk about two guys that are not easy to have their minds blown, let alone at the same time… I can’t say too much but what is going on there right now is beyond my expectation of what was possible,’ he said.

‘It’s also the only way that I felt like I can give a certain entertainment-seeking audience something they may have a hankering to have an experience of, in a way where I can continue to develop my interest in the future of entertainment,’ he said. 

‘Where the hell else would you go but there?’ he concluded.

Robert will play Doctor Doom in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars. 

The Oscar winner, 59, donned his well-used costume one final time for Avengers: End Game in 2019

But now he’s slated to return to the MCU as Dr. Victor Von Doom in two upcoming MCU films, a move that left fans shocked, elated and bewildered during the revelation at San Diego Comic Con in June

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter he dished about the conversation with Kevin Feige and Bob Iger that paved the way for his return

Downey was approached to appear make a cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine but unbeknownst to the filmmakers, he was already preparing for Doctor Doom. 

Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick opened up about their initial vision of having Downey appear as Iron Man/Tony Stark in a scene with Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan before he turned them down. 

Reese told IndieWire: ‘Behind the scenes, we didn’t know about the Doctor Doom. And there’s no way he was going to do both. And then we said, ‘Oh, Downey doesn’t say ‘no’ to Ryan Reynolds, does he? No one says no to Ryan Reynolds.’

‘And Ryan gave him the hard press. We wrote scenes, and Downey read the scenes, but what we didn’t know behind the scenes was this Doctor Doom thing.’

‘I had this instinct that I wanted to go to Bob Iger and I had an idea, outside of the cinematic universe, for how I could be of service to what’s going on in the [theme] parks,’ he explained

It was reported in July that Downey would earn ‘significantly more’ than £62million, or $81million US, for taking on the villainous role.

Further payouts are expected in ‘performance escalators’, which will give him a share of box office revenue.

Other perks in his contract include private jet travel, dedicated security and a whole ‘trailer encampment’.

The new deal will see Downey leapfrog the salaries of Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense, Tom Cruise in the Top Gun reboot, and Will Smith in Men in Black 3, as the highest-paid movie star of all time.

Downey Jr is the highest-paid member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, earning £400million as Tony Stark’s Iron Man starring in four Avengers movies, three Iron Man outings and cameos in The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Even though his Tony Stark character is now dead, the franchise’s multiverse storytelling will allow him to return.