Kevin Feige on recasting Iron Man and Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

November 11, 2016 by Gary Collinson 36 Comments

With Phase Three now well underway and the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving full steam ahead towards Avengers: Infinity War, questions are once again been raised about the future of the MCU, and what will happen when age catches it up with its stars, or they decide it’s time to move on.

During an interview with The Toronto Sun, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige was asked how Marvel plans to address that very scenario, and whether they would go down the recasting route for the likes of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Chris Evans’ Captain America, or if they’d model them on Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym from Ant-Man.

“I think it could be either one,” said Feige. “These characters have been around for 50-plus years, and have been relatively ageless. Sometimes there are alternate stories where the character is younger than they usually are, or older, but they usually maintain a certain age. I think most of these characters that are iconic, like James Bond, like Batman, like Spider-Man, like Iron Man, someday will be portrayed by different actors. The good news right now is I don’t have to think about that for a long time. We have storylines for this cast for many years to come.”

So, judging by Feige’s response, you’d have to assume Marvel plans on having these characters around for Phase Four, which means some rather expensive contract renewals could be on the horizon…

Penis lickers sucker toucher b
Recast WarMachine again with Kevin Hart!
- bigevilworldwide1 .
  What a terrible god awful idea…..Kevin Hart can’t act and its time to stop pretending he can…Dude is worse than Chris Tucker, but atleast Chris TUcker finally went away
  - biddy
    lol wtf dude,dt nigga hz earned hiz star on d hollywood walk of fame ,dts somtin big ,hez a comedic actor ,i’ll lyk 2 see him get a crius role tho
    - Damon P.
      Dude…don’t talk just go read a dictionary and learn how to spell.
  - neemer5
    I’m pretty sure he was being faceitous
Ken Yan
Iron Man is nowhere as iconic as Batman and Spider-Man.
- Hayden Russell
  He’s definitely getting to the point where he is to today’s generation with exhaustion and disappointment with constant reiterations — good and bad — of Spidey and Batman along with Robert Downey Jr.’s charisma making him the de facto face of the character on and off the page.
  He’s not there yet, not by far, but hey. Who knows.
  - Selena Danielle Starfire
    IM may not be there yet as iconic as the other two HOWEVER no one talks about wayne tech when you look at things in movies and cartoons it is stark tech that sets the standard ESPECIALLY when dealing with high level threats. this was proven when bats had no choice BUT TO BUILD a “thrasher suit” here is where anyone and everyone say “but there is only so many ways to do armoured tech suits” but tony did it first and best.
- OC Guy
  10 years ago I would have agreed 100%, but that may be changing. He is resonating very well with new and younger collectors. 20 years from now he may be right there with Batman and maybe even Spider-Man…ya never know.
  - Selena Danielle Starfire
    in BvsS even BATS used a “thrasher suit” which could EASILY be just another version of the hulkbuster it is stark tech that deals with HIGHER level threats bats and others like him are street level heroes when you start getting higher threats even hero threats you start to see Stark tech .
- Marcus Velez
  That’s not what the revenue says.
  - Ken Yan
    Revenue is irrelevant when it comes to being iconic. To be iconifc they have to be well-known and recognizable to mainstream audiences for several generations. Batman and Spider-Man are iconic. Iron isn’t iconic.
    - Kenedy M
      Iron Man is as recognizable to mainstream audience as Batman and Spider-Man. Put him in any movie and it is sure to earn you 1 billion. He himself managed to earn 1.25 billion for the third movie.
      - Ken Yan
        That only makes Iron Man a flavor of the month It doesn’t make Iron Man iconic. For a character to be iconic, it has to stand the test of time. James bond, Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Batman and Spider-Man are all iconic. Iron Man may be just a fad, but Iron Man definitely for sure isn’t iconic.
- Silentmajority
  Robert Downey Jr. made Iron Man iconic, which I think will be the issue when they need to move on from him. Spider Man and Batman are interesting in their own right. Iron Man was always boring until RDJ played him on screen.
  - GothamBats
    One could argue that Sean Connery made James Bond iconic. Also, until they recast him and the recast works out, Harrison Ford has made both Han Solo and Indiana Jones iconic.
    - Ken Yan
      Also, what makes James Bond and Han Solo and Indiana Jones and Batman and Spider-Man iconic are that they’ve stood the test of time. To be iconic, they have to be well-known and recognizable to the mainstream audience for several generations. To be iconic, they have to stand the test of time, not be just a fad (like Disco was in the 1970s). Batman and Spider-Man are iconic because they’ve stood the test of time. Iron Man hasn’t stood the test of time so Iron Man may just be a fad (like Disco in the 1970s), but Iron Man is definitely not iconic.
  - Ken Yan
    No, RDJ didn’t make Iron Man iconic because Iron Man isn’t iconic.
- flintmarko1210
  Iron Man is bigger than both at the moment
  - Ken Yan
    Iconic isn’t what’s hot at the moment. To be iconic, they have to be well-known and recognizable to the mainstream audience for several generations. To be iconic, they have to stand the test of time, not be just a fad (like Disco was in the 1970s). Batman and Spider-Man are iconic because they’ve stood the test of time. Iron man hasn’t stood the test of time so Iron Man may just be a fad (like Disco in the 1970s), but Iron Man is definitely not iconic.
    - Kenedy M
      Hey kid, lemme tell you what made Batman,Superman,Spiderman iconic. They had their own popular movies and TV shows in the 60s,70s and 90s. So those generation knew them by now. Now that Iron Man has his own movies, he is as recognizable to mainstream audience as those. Spiderman had popular cartoon series back then, and had huge movies in the 00s, Batman had huge movies in the 90s and his own series back in the 60s, superman was huge by 50s itself due to the tv series.And he was made even bigger due to Superman(1978). Deny all you want.Why would it be making billions if it is not recognizable to audience. Also, another point of argument can be the costume, Superman,spiderman,batman costumes are easy to make with a piece of cloth, but You can’t for Iron Man.
      - Ken Yan
        Making a lot of money NOW doesn’t make Iron Man iconic. Something that’s the flavor of the month, like Iron Man is, can make a lot money. Transformers: Age of Extinction grossed over $1 billion. But a generation from now, will people remember that movie as much as Avatar or Titanic or The Dark Knight? For a character to be iconic, it has to stand the test of time. Characters like James Bond, Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man are all iconic because they’ve stood the test of time. Iron Man hasn’t stood the test of time. Iron Man may be a popular fad NOW, but Iron Man is definitely for sure NOT iconic.
- Nocturnal Rites
  Disagree. IM isn’t my favorite character, but RDJ IS Tony Stark. In fact, my problem with recasting at all is that the first round draft picks were so iconic, nobody can replace the characters. I’d never be able to wrap my head around someone else playing Steve Rogers, for example (and I’m not going to bother going to go see whoever else they might stuff into the Cap suit, either — Cap is Steve, period, I don’t care what comic canon is. And he’s not HYDRA, either.)
  Replace the person behind the hero? Okay, even though I’m really not going to follow the replacement, tbh. But that would be a better bet than stuffing another actor in there. DC learned that lesson the hard way, trying to recast Superman. As good as Cavill is, it was still an uphill struggle getting anyone to fill Christopher Reeve’s shoes. Batman’s not been as difficult because they’ve had so many faces — but then, the DC characters (and I say this as someone who’s equal DC/Marvel) have always suffered from 2D characterization.
  Everyone also keeps saying, ‘But that’s what they do with James Bond’ — but the genre’s not the same and it’s not like Bond is all that deep or interesting either.
  What makes superhero movies watchable and likeable is the depth the actor gives the character behind the mask — not the mask itself. Marvel’s better off building some depth with some replacements instead of just recasting.
Brandon Smith
I hope they don’t ever recast the roles. there are MORE than enough heroes in the Marvel Universe that there is no need to ever recast. And how awesome would it be, in 2050, to see a Ms. America movie, or something like that, and have Chris Evans show up, as an old Steve Rogers to help out? The guy everyone grew up with being Captain America?
THAT’S how Marvel would continue to fill seats for the long haul. People would come see that. The connection that these characters and these actors have made with their audience is very strong.
Moreover, the reason Marvel succeeded in comics, originally, is by virtue of it’s universe. The Marvel universe used to age. That was a significant selling point. people grew up with Peter Parker, went to college with Peter Parker, and got married with Peter Parker.
- bigevilworldwide1 .
  Chris Evans is leaving period…I don’t think there is anything they could say or do to keep him around….The guy has said he is done with the character because he wants to get into directing, which is what he is planning on doing as soon as Infinity War is done.
  RDJ on the other hand has said that he is willing to stick around BUT he is in his 50s and at that age really doesn’t want to keep doing this 3-4 year schedule because he’s getting older.
  - Brandon Smith
    Oh, I hadn’t heard that about Evans. The last I heard, he said he was game for whatever because he loved working with Marvel.
    The one thing that I will say, though, is not to put too much stock in what actors say about how interested they are in reprising roles. Most actors are under the wise instruction of their agents to never sound too interested in continuing a role. YOu’re happy, but you’re not THAT happy. This is to aid in contract negotiations. “I like Marvel and I want to work with them as long as they will have me!” isn’t a good bargaining position. “I’m getting pretty tired and ready to leave” is a great bargaining position.
    We see that sort of thing happen with people like, say, Joe Rogan who just signed on to the UFC for a boatload of money after saying for 2 years about how he was “done”.
    - Mickael Duncan
      Like a year after saying he was done with acting after his contractual obligations are up, he said that he’s open to continuing to play Captain America so long as the character is respected and the stories are good.
  - MaskedRacer
    Chris Evans is a jerk in real life. Nothing like the pro American heroic Captain America he plays. Moving to your point I think seeds are being set for Bucky Barns to take the Cap America role one day.
  - MaskedRacer
    I think Robert Downy is content on playing the A-list supporting cast members in other people’s movies like Captain America and Spiderman. And Avengers of course. I dont see an IM4 coming. I pretend Iron Man 3 was never made too. Iron Man 3 is by far the worst MCU movie to come out so far. Iron Man 2 is much better than people give it credit for.
Michael Vegas
Sure you can recast, but you have to make sure they are as good as the one before, Look at Bond. There have been many, each on the same playing field as the previous one, so you can’t have Robert replaced with say Robert Patterson
Selena Danielle Starfire
even packing EVERY character in the MCU together and playing down the power of the infinity gauntlet do they have enough power???
- Keith Taylor
  Honestly they need more folks with Omega level powers.
Jek Porkins
Creating a clickbait article about a random quote from a different interview that wasn’t even done by this site. God I hate the internet sometimes.
- Gary@FlickeringMyth
  99% of articles on the internet are based around quotes or stories sourced from elsewhere. That’s kind of how it works. But thanks for the feedback.
Fuzzy
I hope the MCU will be confident enough in their product to not go down the Bond route and recast when the actor gets ‘too old’. As well as showing that characters don’t age much, comics also have a history of passing the superhero gauntlet to new characters, and it’s the later that the MCU should adopt. It’ll keep the stories more real for the audience and have less reliance on movie stars and more on the characters and the universe they inhabit. It’ll also give new and supporting heroes the chance to shine and be as big as the likes of Thor, Spidey, Cap, Iron Man and Hulk.
Nocturnal Rites
Just keep Evans as Steve…I’d be totally down with him being Commander Rogers, as long as they keep him around.