Downey on his Captain America role

While Iron Man will be in “Captain America : Civil War”, the man behind the metal says primarily the movie remains that of a Steve Rogers adventure.

“Ultimately it’s Steve’s story; it doesn’t say ‘Iron Man 4: Civil War'”, Robert Downey Jr tells Empire. “I think that’s great too. I think Chris [Evans] has been hungry to bring even more of an underside and some shadow to that. I remember the comics – 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.”

Downey says that though he and Evan’s characters will be on opposing sides in the movie, that doesn’t mean ‘Iron Man’ will be the villain of the piece.

“The main thing to me is, and this is where I think the Russos are quite brilliant and where Kevin backed the play, is what sort of incident could occur and what sort of framework could we find Tony in? The clues are in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron,’ about where we might find (Tony) 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. 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?’

Downey is, of course, referring to Joe and Anthony Russo, the duo behind “Captain America : The Winter Soldier” and this next chapter, due next year.