Robert Downey, Jr. Admits Having “Reservations” About ‘Dolittle’ & Says The Film Was “A Squandered Opportunity”

When “Avengers: Endgame” was released in 2019, Robert Downey, Jr. was the King of Hollywood. The film seemed like a celebration of his 10+ years working for Marvel Studios and becoming one of the biggest (and most well-paid) stars on the planet. Not only that, the film broke all sorts of records and cemented his legacy in the minds of film fans around the world. But his movie star armor suffered a major blow with the release of his next film, “Dolittle,” which not only had terrible reviews but was a massive box office failure. And now, Downey, Jr. is ready to admit that “Dolittle” wasn’t the best move to make after his run of MCU films. 

READ MORE: ‘Dolittle’ Disaster: Universal Reportedly Wanted Seth Rogen To Help Inject Comedy Into The Family Film

Speaking to the New York Times Magazine, while promoting his newest film, “Oppenheimer,” Robert Downey, Jr. talked about the failure of “Dolittle” and what went into his risky decision to make that movie. You may remember the story of the failure of “Dolittle,” but it runs deeper than just a box office bomb with bad reviews. The film was meant to set up a new franchise for RDJ and even before it arrived in theaters, it was the subject of numerous reports of behind-the-scenes issues. The film went through an extensive post-production shakeup including filmmaker Stephen Gaghan reportedly stepping aside in favor of filmmaker Jonathan Liebesman, who was working on new scenes written by Chris McKay. It seemed as if it was a last-ditch effort to save the film. Of course, it didn’t work. Now, RDJ is talking a bit about what led to that film’s failure. 

READ MORE: ‘Sherlock Holmes 3’: Susan Downey Says Long-Awaited Sequel Is Still “A Priority” For Robert Downey Jr.

“I finished the Marvel contract and then hastily went into what had all the promise of being another big, fun, well-executed potential franchise in ‘Dolittle,’” explained Downey, Jr. “I had some reservations. Me and my team seemed a little too excited about the deal and not quite excited enough about the merits of the execution. But at that point I was bulletproof. I was the guru of all genre movies.”

He added, “Honestly, the two most important films I’ve done in the last 25 years are ‘The Shaggy Dog’ because that was the film that got Disney saying they would insure me. Then the second most important film was ‘Dolittle’ because ‘Dolittle’ was a two-and-a-half-year wound of squandered opportunity. The stress it put on my missus as she rolled her sleeves up to her armpits to make it even serviceable enough to bring to market was shocking. After that point — what’s that phrase? Never let a good crisis go to waste? — we had this reset of priorities and made some changes in who our closest business advisers were.”

Clearly, Downey, Jr. has been in the film business long enough to realize that “Dolittle” was an outright disaster, no matter how you talk about it. So, it’s refreshing to see him admit as much, though with more diplomatic words, especially going so far as to say that his confidence coming out of the MCU might have clouded his judgment. 

Regardless of the “Dolittle” failure, it appears Downey, Jr. is doing just fine, with a fairly large role in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” which arrives in theaters on July 21.