While Marvel’s What If has recast the part of Iron Man, Jeff Goldblum had earlier said that the show will have Robert Downey Jr voicing Tony Stark. Chris Hemsworth, Hayley Atwell, and the late Chadwick Boseman are voicing their live-action counterparts.
Marvel’s What If teaser worried fans as they learnt that Robert Downey Jr was not voicing Iron Man, despite the character appearing in several episodes. The character in the animated series has been recast much to the disappointment of fans. Robert Downey Jr bowed out from further Marvel projects with Avengers: Endgame, where his character Tony Stark/ Iron Man died after sacrificing himself to save the world from being snapped away by Thanos (Josh Brolin) again. RDJ isn’t tied to more Marvel projects, but it was earlier reported that he would voice his character in What If.
The teaser features snippets from every episode of the series, and confirms the return of actors like Chris Hemsworth, Hayley Atwell, and the late Chadwick Boseman who are voicing their live-action counterparts. However, Chris Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Brie Larson would not be voicing their characters, Captain America, Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel.
Fans are rather upset with this turn of events and are calling it a ‘poor choice’ on Marvel’s part. They are finding it especially hard to digest as earlier Jeff Goldblum had confirmed that Robert Downey Jr would return in What If…? Talking with Buzzfeed, Goldblum had said that he’s recorded a part as Thor: Ragnarok’s Grandmaster in an episode of What If and Robert Downey Jr was set to return.
“I played the part again a couple of days ago. I went to the Disney Studios and I recorded The Grandmaster’s voice for an episode of a show that’s gonna be on Disney+ that’s called ‘What If…?’,” the veteran actor had told BuzzFeed in a video.
“It’s an animated version of all the characters we know and love from Marvel and this episode included the Grandmaster and Iron Man, so Robert Downey Jr will do a voice for that, and Korg… Taika Waititi had already recorded his voice for that, so yeah, for a couple hours I enjoyed doing that,” he added.
As the title suggests, What If sees alternate versions of Marvel heroes, be it Peggy Carter becoming Captain Carter, to T’Challa becoming Star Lord. The show will release on August 11 2021, Disney Plus.
Marvel struck gold with its television series this year, as WandaVision starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany received praise, and Loki, featuring Tom Hiddleston is getting rave reviews as well for its twists and turns. Marvel’s standalone film, Black Widow released in theatres on July 9, in several countries as well.
