Captain America: Brave New World is filming in Washington DC, and Robert Downey Jr. was reportedly seen on set.
Initially titled Captain America: New World Order, Brave New World will feature Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie, as he continues to take on the Captain America mantle. The film will follow the Disney Plus series Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Captain America 4 will see Harrison Ford play General Ross after the passing of William Hurt, who played the character in prior films.
Downey Jr. was reportedly seen on the Captain America 4 set. This leak comes from a LinkedIn post from Nawar Shora, an author working in DC. Shora claims he talked to “one of the security folks” who told Shora about seeing Downey Jr. on set. "They are filming Captain America 4 around the White House and near my office. I was on a quick errand walk as I noticed all the lights and equipment and finally asked one of the security folks about it," Shora wrote. "He was so talkative and nice, said — (SPOILER) — Robert Downey Jr was there last night and they were driving all sorts of super cars."
Downey Jr. has a series streaming on Max right now called Downey's Dream Cars, where the actor works with a team of experts to restore classic cars from his collection so that they can be more eco-friendly. The report is presumably unrelated to his show, as Downey's Dream Cars premiered while Captain America 4 was in production. So how is it that Downey Jr. will return in the newest Captain America movie?
It is unlikely that Marvel Studios will bring Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark back from the dead after the emotional end that his character had in Avengers: Endgame. So it's safe to assume that if he does appear in the film in anything other than a flashback, he is not playing the MCU's Tony Stark. With the MCU currently in its multiversal saga, he may be playing a variant of Tony Stark or another character.
However, if this leak is valid and Downey Jr. was on the set, it doesn’t necessarily mean he will appear in the film. Even though the MCU is currently in the multiverse saga, there have been no reports of Captain America: Brave New World being a multiverse film. This would be an odd movie for him to return to when there are better options. It could be that he just wanted to go on the set to join some of his friends who star in the film and have some fun driving cars.
Captain America: Brave New World is scheduled to be released in theaters on July 26, 2024.
Source: Nawar Shora/LinkedIn