Robert Downey Jnr on ‘Avengers: Endgame’ – and how the Marvel superheroes see life beyond spandex

There has been nothing like it in the history of modern cinema. The phenomenal success of the multibillion-dollar Marvel Cinematic Universe films – from the Captain America and Thor franchises, to the recent, groundbreaking Black Panther and Captain Marvel – has changed the Hollywood landscape over the past decade-plus since Robert Downey Jnr first donned a red-and-gold metallic supersuit for 2008’s Iron Man.

It’s hard to overstate quite how much the collective MCU has shaped contemporary cinema, both on-screen and off. Stars such as Downey, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans and Tom Hiddleston have all found their biggest roles within it, as have outside choices Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly and Chadwick Boseman.

At the box office, the numbers are staggering, with the entire filmography currently having amassed a mind-boggling US$15 billion-plus, placing it first on the list of top grossing joint film series of all time.

And now, this April, the linchpin of the MCU’s entire cinematic master plan, the ensemble Avengers franchise, is set to end in its massively anticipated fourth and final instalment, Avengers: Endgame. Rumoured to be set to surpass Avatar’s currently highest ranked US$2.8 billion haul on its release, Avengers: Endgame picks up from where 2018’s Infinity War’s shocking finale left off – with big-bad Thanos, played by a CGI-enhanced Josh Brolin, had obliterated half the universe with one snap of his Infinity Gauntlet-clad fingers.

“With Thanos, the threat has risen to a new level, which is really saying something,” chuckles Downey, 53, who was last seen drifting through space with depleting oxygen reserves having been beaten by the purple mega-villain on the ruined planet of Titan. “Whether The Avengers want to band together or not, we don’t survive unless we do ... because nobody gets past Thanos.”