The very likely introduction of Marvel's Illuminati team - a legitimate replacement team for the Avengers - in Phase 4 sets up the only proper way to end Iron Man’s MCU story. While Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark bowed out after his death at the end of Avengers: Endgame, his legacy continues to overshadow the MCU. Spider-Man has only just managed to step out of his shadow, and the forthcoming Ironheart is already likely to emerge from his shadow too. Even Doctor Strange 2 has a major link to Iron Man with the re-emergence of his Iron Legion drones in the trailer.
It was always inevitable that the founding character of the MCU would continue to be important even after his retirement, and that his return would be almost perpetually rumored. Robert Downey Jr’s performance was so essential that his removal and his replacement are both unfathomable. Even with the delightful possibilities posed by the MCU multiverse and the arrival of an alternate version of Iron Man would see pushback from those who can’t see past his perfect casting. But without closure on his legacy, Tony Stark will continue to loom large.
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Part of the problem with Iron Man’s Endgame ending was that his death only answered part of his self-identified destiny. From the moment Captain America criticized him as selfish in The Avengers, Iron Man was destined to sacrifice himself, but as Thanos astutely observed, Stark’s curse of knowledge also formed the other part of his legacy. Stark told Bruce Banner that he saw a suit of armor around the world, the visualization of his dream not to expand his inventive need, but to feed his essential urge for protection. Though he died without really realizing that dream, the introduction of the Illuminati in Doctor Strange 2 would represent the true realization of it. The team would be Stark’s suit of armor around the world.
Sadly, the MCU prime version of Tony Stark was limited in his vision for protecting the world by his obsession with the Iron Man project. He sought technological perfection that increasingly isolated him, even as he gifted his tech to other heroes and by the time of his death, Tony was creating a suit that effectively made him a perfect weapon. That fit with his choice to try and take Thanos down alone in Infinity War. But he would ultimately realize in the wake of Civil War’s fracture of the Avengers that unity of the heroes was what was truly needed to take the Mad Titan down. His sacrifice may have killed Thanos but it was the product of teamwork.
The Illuminati, thus, would reasonably be called the extrapolation of Iron Man’s lesson from Endgame, had he survived. Rather than obsessing over technology as the be-all-and-end-all, investing in the greatest minds and powerful individuals as a combined force to protect the universe made far more sense. Even the inclusion of his Iron Legion drones in service of the powerful council would be the perfect nod to Tony’s shifted priorities. There’s already a major hint that a version of Iron Man will be in Doctor Strange 2 as part of the Illuminati and the perfect ending to his MCU story would be revealing his epiphany and formation of the new super team.
