After seeing Stephen Colbert’s rather impressive impression of himself as Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. was excited to offer the “Late Show” host a spot in the Avengers lineup, now that there is an opening. No, it’s not as the new Iron Man, following the death of — spoiler alert — Tony Stark in “Avengers: Endgame,” but as the assistant of another Avenger.
“I did a little video of me imitating your Tony and you said, ‘We welcome our newest Avenger with open arms. Well, open arms, but six feet away…’ Is that official? I’m an Avenger now?,” Colbert said to Downey Jr. when he appeared on Sunday’s “Late Show” after Super Bowl LV.
“Well, I mean, do you want to get into it because I’ve been thinking about this a lot?” the Marvel Cinematic Universe star said.
“I mean, what are the responsibilities?” the CBS late-night host asked.
“Well, here’s the thing, there’s an opening, right?” Downey Jr. said, immediately making us think of Iron Man. “Cobie Smulders plays Agent Hill, sometimes Commander Hill. I thought, if she needed a weekend assistant, right? Cap Colbert.”
Oh, OK, little different than we were thinking here.
He continued: “You have a baseball cap, and when you wear it you possess the superpower that no man has, you can multitask and you can take care of all her stuff. Anyway, I’m going to pitch it. It’s going to go up the tree to [Marvel Studios head Kevin] Feige. We’ll see where it lands.”
You know what? Colbert will take it. “Just a walk on even. I’d be very grateful.”
The two went on to discuss how they think Tony Stark would cure COVID-19, which Downey thinks would come via “Nanobots Without Borders.”
“James Spader (who played Ultron in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’) is going to cure COVID, and we both know it,” the actor said laughing, adding that he was going to be “pitching you and Spader as alternates on Cobie Smulders’ desk.”
Watch Downey Jr.’s full interview with Colbert above.