By Brendan Clementz

Ever since the climactic end to the Avengers saga of the Marvel movie series, the franchise has gone into a massive slump. The announcement of a returning actor may be its saving grace. 

Entertainment Tonight announced that Robert Downey Jr., the actor who portrayed Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man, has a renewed contract to act in more Marvel films.

The catch? His character is supposed to be dead. 

Nearly everyone who watched Avengers: Endgame will remember that Tony Stark sacrificed himself to defeat the main villain, Thanos, in a finishing move to 10 years worth of films. After something as final as that, there shouldn’t be a need for the character anymore.

The big question is what fans of the series think about it. “It makes me happy because Iron Man has always been my favorite character,” junior Catey Caldwell said. “I love Robert Downey Jr.; I think he’s an amazing actor and very funny.”

“I think the thought of Robert Downey Jr. coming back could go two ways,” junior Cecil Dyer said. “It can be either exciting or confusing or plain boring.” 

Another question is how an older character will interact with the new ones that now make up the majority of important characters, like Ms. Marvel. “I think it will be interesting to see how they build relationships between Stark and the newer characters that have been more recently introduced,” Caldwell said. 

Given the current track record of Marvel with such flops as “Ant Man: Quantumania” and many releases on Disney+ with middling results, the studio may be desperate for another big hit like they’ve seen in the past.

“It’ll probably show whether it was a good idea to bring him back or not if we wait and see,” Dyer said.