Did actor Robert Downey Jr. announce that he would leave the Marvel movie franchise and the U.S., stating, "Goodbye, I don't fit in here," as of December 2, 2024? No, that's not true: A Threads post that reported Downey's supposed announcement included a link that, when clicked, led to a "404 Error Page." Neither the original poster nor the website linked provided evidence that Downey had made such an announcement. As of this writing, Downey had not announced plans to leave either Marvel or the U.S. on his social media accounts. No reputable news outlets have reported such an announcement, either.
The claim appeared in a post on Threads (archived here), where it was published on November 28, 2024. The caption read:
Iron Man Star Robert Downey Jr. Leaves Marvel and US: "Goodbye, I Don't Fit In Here."
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Dec 2 14:08:57 2024 UTC)
A link in the post's comments section led to a "404 Page Not Found" message (archived here). Neither the original post on Threads nor the website linked provided evidence to show that Downey had made such an announcement.
In July 2024, Marvel Studios announced (archived here) that Downey would "return for 'Avengers: Doomsday.'"
As of this writing, Downey had not announced plans to leave either Marvel or the U.S. on his social media accounts, including Instagram, X, and Facebook (archived here, here, and here, respectively).
A Google News search using key phrases like "Robert Downey Jr. is leaving the United States" and "Robert Downey Jr. announced he is leaving Marvel" yielded no relevant reports (archived here and here, respectively).
Lead Stories has contacted Downey's publicists and will update this article when a relevant response is received.
At the time this was written, PolitiFact had fact-checked this claim.
More Lead Stories fact checks of claims involving Robert Downey Jr. are here.
