Robert Downey Jr. on Iron Man's role in Captain America: Civil War

By Steve WattsRobert Downey Jr. has opened up about the shifts we'll see in the Tony Stark character leading up to Captain America: Civil War.

"It’s natural to change your views," he told Empire. "The clues are in Ultron about where we might find him next. But what would it take for Tony to completely turn around everything he’s stood for, quote-unquote, because he was the right-wing guy who could still do his own thing."

"It’s a little bit of things following a real world continuum in, ‘What would you do?’ There’s always the bigger overarching question, that Joss brings up all the time--it’s kind of weird that these guys would have all these throw downs all over planet Earth and it looked like a little collateral damage happened over there, and yet when the movie’s over, it’s like nobody minds. You have to figure, ‘Were you to ask the question, what would the American government do if this were real? Wouldn’t it be interesting to see Tony doing something you wouldn’t imagine?’"

He also hinted at the direction for Captain America's character. "On the surface you got the sense that Cap was baseball and apple pie, but underneath there was all this churning stuff of being a man out of time. Now we know he’s made his peace with that. What’s the bigger issue? It can have a little something to do with the past, but it can be about someone becoming more modernized in their own conflict."

Civil War is based on a 2006 series, in which the government attempts to pass a Superhero Registration Act. In the story, Captain America stood for the privacy rights of superheroes, while Tony Stark advocated for the act as a safety measure for the citizenry. Spider-Man also famously revealed his true identity in support of the act, and Marvel's recent deal with Sony may allow the studio to include that plot point in its film.

Finally, Downey Jr. made a point about his own character needing to take a back seat as he gets older.
"I also recognize that I’ll be turning 50 by the time I promote this movie. The clock is ticking down on the amount of memories and participation that I would allow myself and not embarrass the medium with. ... Then there’s all this competition too. I don’t do this because I look at it as a competition, but I look at the marketplace and go, ‘Maybe if these two franchises teamed up and I can take even a lesser position in support, with people I like and directors I respect, maybe we can keep things bumping along here a little longer than they might have’."  








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