There’s a reason that Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man still resonates like no other Marvel superhero. Sure, there’s the heart, the charm, the style, but while every other character and story gets more outlandish, more out-of-this-world, Tony Stark felt grounded, real.
Stark inspired in all of us a quiet hope that maybe if this fictional man could turn his back on the technology of destruction to create things that could help change the world for the better, someone in our universe could, too. But who?
Robert Downey Jr. was wondering the same thing as he closed out his Marvel journey with the record-shattering Avengers: Endgame. Who could it be? Then another question popped into his mind: Why not him?
“I was wrapping up my Marvel contract, and so I kind of made all the similarities between my journey in the Marvel universe along with what’s really happened with AI and robotics over the last 10, 15 years, and then I thought while I was doing this – I honestly should make some sort of commitment to the environment,” says Downey Jr.
That led to him founding the FootPrint Coalition, a team of experts in entertainment, venture capital, media, non-profit, and climate technology. Yes, you’re thinking it too, so we’ll say it: A real life Avengers.
“I got together with a bunch of super geniuses, and they said with AI and robotics we probably could clean up the planet in the next two years. I said, ‘let’s do it, let’s get it done!’ Immediately they started backtracking and I felt pissed off by the inefficiency of the human experience, and so I thought, I’m just going to see If I can do something about this.”
He’s applied part of that to his love of cars, on display in his new series Downey’s Dream Cars, debuting in the MENA region via the discovery+ library of STC TV and Starzplay with a two-episode release every Thursday between June 22 and July 6.
In Downey’s Dream Cars, Downey and a team of experts restore six of his prized classic cars to make them more eco-friendly; updating them into the new millennium while preserving the power and style that made these vintage automobiles so legendary to begin with.
In the series, Downey Jr. also investigates the future of mobility, seeking guidance from some of the most brilliant minds working today to imagine the next era of personal transportation and automotive innovation.
No, Robert Downey Jr. is not the real life Iron Man, but he’s following in his footsteps for the good of the world.
Robert Downey Jr. talks Downey’s Dream Cars
What’s your motive for going on this journey, and transforming your collection into eco-mod vehicles?
What I am is a red-blooded American boy, who grew up in New York, watching the French Connection and Bullet. 42 years later, I amassed a collection, which is what I thought you were meant to do when you become successful. You’re supposed to collect things; you’re supposed to have artifacts of your success. You are supposed to be able to drive these symbols of how you’ve succeeded in America. My priorities are in a completely different place now, and yet, I still love these cars. I feel like they represent something uniquely beautiful about the past. So, I want to bring them into the present, maybe even the future.
Can you tell us about how you founded the FootPrint Coalition?
I was wrapping up my Marvel contract, and so I kind of made all the similarities between my journey in the Marvel universe along with what’s really happened with AI and robotics over the last 10, 15 years, and then I thought while I was doing this – I honestly should make some sort of commitment to the environment. And so I got together with a bunch of super geniuses, and they said with AI and robotics we probably could clean up the planet in the next two years. I said, ‘let’s do it, let’s get it done!’ Immediately they started backtracking and I felt pissed off by the inefficiency of the human experience, and so I thought, I’m just going to see If I can do something about this.
What does your collection mean to you?
I don’t know if it’s nostalgia for the cars, or if it’s the nostalgia for that time, but to me they are like touch stones to memories; that’s it’s a way to not have them fade. It’s so soothing, it’s comforting to me.
Where did your love for driving come from?
It really was from my mom where I got my passion for driving from. My mom loved to drive and she was a really good driver, 20 times better than my dad! She could drive any type of car – a truck or semi if she had to. By the time I was in my mid-20s, I had watched her enough that no matter what car I wound up in, I could get it going.
Can you tell us about the first car you transformed on the show? What was the story behind it?
We called it the Thanos Thumper because it’s big, it’s loud, it’s purple, it looks like it could eat the world – and it definitely eats a lot of gas! And so, when I got the idea to eco-mod some of my car collection, it wasn’t long till I was looking at this beast of a truck and thinking, ‘what if I went electric with that – is it even possible?’ I can tell these guys think I’m crazy for me to be messing with the car, it’s already been immaculately restored and now I’m going to be re-restoring it! But here’s the thing – that truck is insanely loud, insanely powerful, pumps out an insane amount of exhaust. It’s like the ultimate monument to the internal combustion engine. Now, I want to tear it down, and make it into another type of monument: quieter, zero emissions, but just as powerful. Turn it into the strong and silent type – just like me!
See Robert Downey Jr. in Downey’s Dream Cars on discovery+ in the Middle East on Starzplay here and STC TV here.