Will Robert Downey Jr. Ever Return as Iron Man? | Joe Rogan

Is the door to Iron Man totally closed? Because I don't believe it is. Oh. You guys can go through time now. You can go... there's... there was... You know, you already opened up that door. Let me ask you the question. If I pick the jersey back up and put it on, wouldn't you feel a little bit like, ah, crap? No. Oh. Here's what I think. They go through a few semi-lackluster Avengers movies without you. You ready for this? I'm ready. Here's the scene. There's a moment where the world's fate is at stake and they've realized they need a super genius. And then they figure out how to restart that time machine. Great. Come on, man. Is that... The audience sees you when you step out of that thing? Is this your... and can we... you wanted a little arc on it too? Because if this is your idea, then you gotta show up for it too. I'll do it. I'll show up. What do I have to do? I don't know. I'll do whatever I have to do. We all have to do whatever Kevin Feige said. A whole good thing. A whole good thing. Does that... do they still have that? They do. They do. It's digital. I'll hold that digital thing. I'll do it. But the way people would freak out if you came back. Come on, man. Think about it. Take a few years off. Do a few Dr. Doolittle's. A couple more Sherlock Holmes. You know, it's interesting watching Eddie Murphy in this last little period of time. And I was talking to Colin Jost last night who got to sit next to him at the Golden Globes and who was there and, you know, on the show and writing for him with him when he hosted recently and I go, it's just incredible. Our culture never encourages taking a break. Never encourages saying, don't chase that thing because you've got it in your hands. And I love the idea that if you're good at what you do, then it's not about time. It's about... It doesn't matter when you decide to pick up the mantle again. It's just about... But it's scary, isn't it? Could you imagine? Like if they just say, hey, Joe, just don't do the show for four years and then come back and do it again. You'd be like, it's a lifetime. Who knows what's gonna happen? Well, with Eddie, what's interesting is he was arguably the greatest of his era and just stopped. Just stopped for 30 years and no one does that. No one was that good. And then when you see him, I don't know if you ever saw him, he received some award and he was on a panel, you know, and sitting in front of a podium rather, and he was talking about Bill Cosby and he was doing this routine about them taking away Bill Cosby's awards. And it was fucking brilliant. And the timing was so good and all of us, comics were just sitting there going, he could do it tomorrow. He could just get up there tomorrow and he'd be fucking murdering. Yes. And but it would be different. It'd be different. He's a different human. You know, that's one of the more interesting things about it. It's him talking about some of the more homophobic stuff that he did in the past. Now it makes him cringe and you just can't believe he was that person. But, you know, he was... When he did Delirious, I think he was like 22 or something crazy like that. Which is just bonkers that he was that good. Anyway, I've been thinking about him lately in relation to a bunch of things, but also just that particularly nowadays, giving yourself permission to not have to jump, because, you know, strike the irons hot, all that stuff. And maybe it's just as a bit of an anxiety to the times, which I remember too, speaking of past generations. I remember growing up in 1974, Nixon's Black and White TV getting impeached. My dad and his buddies are whooping it up, but they're still pissed and I'm going like, wow, it's not worse or better. It's different, but now it's on us. Yeah. So there's a bit of an urgency. And that whole thing of just being able to say... Like, so to answer your question, to me, starting up again is off the table. I feel I've done all I could with that character. There'd have to be a super compelling argument in a series of events that made it obvious to it. But the other thing is, I want to do other stuff. Right, of course. Yeah, of course. You know, what you're talking about, about Nixon and people can lose themselves in current events. And what I mean by that, like, it doesn't necessarily completely... Your life is more than what's going on in Washington. You know, Hunter Thompson talked about that when he was running for sheriff in Aspen. He was talking about how local politics, like your neighborhood, that's real. This actually can affect your life. Like, what's going on in Washington? How much does that affect your day-to-day existence? It's very little. But for some people, it becomes an enormous portion of the real estate of their mind. It takes over most of their day-to-day consciousness, where they're consumed with it. And it becomes a thing they're cheering for or they're rooting against. And then, you know, your life revolves on something that you have very little power over. Teams, turf wars, interests. Yeah. Think globally, act locally. Yes, I mean, it's a beautiful statement. It really is. It's one of those cliches that you don't even think about. I didn't know that was Hunter in that picture out there. To me, it looked like Joe Walsh. Couldn't he? He's sleeping, Joe Walsh. I mean, he moved to Colorado too. Oh, wow. Rocky Mountain Way. Oh, damn, if he didn't. Yeah. He once told me, I'll speak out of school. He said, now, you should just watch TV for a year, bro. I was like, thanks, Joe. And by the way, he was probably right. Probably right. Look, if you just hung back and just did nothing but watch TV for a year, the fucking ideas you would have, you'd probably have a really rock-solid idea of what's going on. His was more trying to have enough things going on that I wouldn't have any ideas for a year, and then I'd give myself a break for a year. Maybe that's good too. See, I'm thinking differently. But you're right. I'm thinking, analyze the landscape. I think Joe Walsh is one of the most underrated guys ever, because he changed the fucking Eagles. The Eagles were one thing, and then Joe Walsh came around like victim of love. That's Joe Walsh. He came around, and all of a sudden, there was a rock to it. It's like they were kicking down doors and lighting shit on fire. It was different. There was an edge to it. He added crazy. He added crazy to this beautiful harmony. And I love it when the guys that added crazy go up to the thin veil between dimensions and say, I think I'm going to stay put. And then all of a sudden, they represent stability. They represent being okay, hanging up your guns, and just being free. Everyone has to accept that at some point in time. Maybe that's you and your glasses. Because everyone has to accept that at one point in time, you're going to have to get off the ride. But when you're doing great, and you're kicking it. Boxers are a perfect example. They always last too long. There's only been a small handful. Andre Ward recently, Marvelous Marvin Hagler in his prime. They just go, that's it. I'm done. And they actually are done. Almost every one of them comes back, and almost every one of them chases that dragon. Here's why I love you. You're making an argument for and also the argument against me coming back and doing another movie picture. Yeah, listen, I'm not married to anything. Except my wife. But I'm not married to any ideas. All the ideas that I have are just like, hmm, maybe that idea sucks. I love you as Iron Man. If they opened up this time machine and you popped out, I just imagine the moment where everybody goes fucking crazy. It would be amazing. It would be great. I would love that. But I would also love you hanging it up. Yeah. Look, it's just, first of all, it's 2020. And I'm not an OCD guy, but I keep thinking, see clearly. See clearly, even if your vision is going. And it's difficult because I feel like we all just get buffeted by feelings and ego or fears or little, you know, chips of resentments or intuitions that are tied to something maybe higher but you think is out of your reach or whatever. So it was a perfect time. And I got to go have dinner with a bunch of the Marvel folks last night. And kind of have just a little bit of extra closure because, you know, the movie came out and it was bananas and the directors are sending me pictures of like people flipping out in theaters when Tony snaps. And I was like, whoa, this is kind of like a really big cultural thing. But then like Victoria Alonso, who's the head of VFX for all these movies, a literal super genius or Kevin Feige or Favreau or Scarlett or some people that I've just been there with it for a long time. We were there experiencing it all when it came out. And then we see each other on a red carpet and it's not intimate. And then we kind of hadn't really had a chance just to do nothing, just hang out and, you know, have some crudite and kind of talk shit. So it was really interesting being here today because yesterday was this kind of last night was this kind of real like felt like closing the circle on things a bit. That's got to be bittersweet. Yeah. But I like that you want to move on and I like that you're doing something like Dr. Doolittle because you've done a lot of wild shit in your life. You've got a lot of wild shit in your career, but you sort of embody every new chapter with the same kind of energy, although there's a different result and different piece of art. It's all the same you. And that's one of the more interesting things about people and particular actors because actors get to be a bunch of different things. And it's one of the weirder things about that craft. Like when you see, you know, a guy who's like Daniel Day Lewis, like embodies these different humans like literally becomes different humans. It's but it's always Daniel Day Lewis. You know what I mean? Like even though he plays these, these, you know, that there will be blood guy and all these different psychopaths and various fascinating characters. It's always the energy like you're pumped to see him do it. Right. And I think that's I feel the same way with you. It's like, I know there's you're an interesting guy. There's a lot of shit going on in your head. So when you dive into something, whatever it is, whether it's your character from Tropic Thunder or whatever it is, like you're, you're gonna, it's gonna be Robert Downey Jr. diving into some. So I would imagine it'd be kind of annoying even though you are brilliant at Iron Man to stay Iron Man.