©2017 CTMG, Inc. All rights reserved. (NEW YORK) — Robert Downey Jr. said watching his onscreen character Tony Stark groom a young Peter Parker, played by Tom Holland, in the new Spider-Man: Homecoming, made him feel like a parent watching their teenager take the wheel.
“I just keep thinking it’s about when your 16-year-old says, ‘Well, I have a license now I can drive,’ and you want to put a tracker in their car and you want to be able to deactivate it,” Downey said in an interview that aired Wednesday on Good Morning America.
Indeed, the tricked out Spider-Man costume Stark gives his protege has some bells and whistles restricted by the “training wheels protocol.”
Homecoming marks the eighth time Downey Jr., 52, has played Stark, the character made famous in the Iron Man series and the Avengers movies.
“I genuinely had a blast,” said the acclaimed actor, who read Spidey’s adventures in Marvel Comics as a kid. I just love Spider-Man so to me, being able to participate in reintroducing Spider-Man to a new generation — that’s why it’s called Homecoming.”
Downey Jr. will return as Tony Stark for the ninth time in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, and yet again in an as-yet-unnamed sequel to that film. Both are underway now.
But for how long will he play the billionaire-genius-playboy-philanthropist? As long as it makes sense for him to do so.
“It’s like with a team,” Downey says. “If you’re going to hang up your jersey, you want to make sure the team is in good shape and they can still compete at a high level, because ultimately that’s what made the whole thing worth doing anyways.”
Spider-Man: Homecoming hits theaters July 7 from Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios, the latter of which, like ABC News, is owned by Disney.
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