Marvel fans want to know who voiced Tony Stark in Marvel’s What If? It’s a question that’s become much more prevalent lately, as the last few episodes of What If? have featured alternate takes on Marvel Cinematic Universe history that affected the entire trajectory of the Avengers team. In What If? Episode 6, we examine “What If… Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark”, a story premise that clearly puts Tony Stark in the spotlight. However, it’s been known since the show’s launch that Robert Downy Jr. wouldn’t be joining other MCU stars in doing voice work for What If?, so a replacement was needed…
Actor Mick Wingert voices Tony Stark in the What If? episodes “What If… Zombies?!” and “What If… Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?”.
Wingert has a long history of doing voicework in geek culture animated shows and video games, including Doc McStuffins, Elena of Avalor, Mass Effect 2, Disney’s Princess and the Frog, the Kung Fu Panda franchise, DC’s Batman: Year One, Netflix’s Voltron reboot and anime series like Attack on Titan, Baki and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. That’s not to mention his work for Marvel, which includes Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon, Avengers Assemble, and Spider-Man (2017). So the experience and geek cred are both certainly there.
…That all said, Marvel Studios has handed Mick Wingert something of a thankless task. Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark/Iron Man is THE defining voice of the MCU, and one of the most criticized and (frankly jarring) aspects of What If? has been the so-called sound-alikes that Marvel Studios hired (i.e., voice actors hired to do impressions of famous MCU stars). This Killmonger and Tony Stark episode has pretty much been the most flagrant in terms of trying to ‘fake it til you make it’ with replacement voices for characters like Tony and Pepper Potts, and not all fans are feeling it:
This Ain’t Right
Newest episode of #WhatIf is cool, but, the Tony Stark voice actor is… Not right
— BACK ROW (@BackRowofficial) September 15, 2021
Not My Iron Man
**husband is watching some cartoon with Tony Stark and all I can think is 🙏🏽😬why the hell did they give Tony Stark the voice from that kid from how to train your dragon?? he sounds like a child. this is not Iron Man😩🤣🥺
— ꧁ⒶⓂ︎ⒶⓃⒹⒶ꧂ (@ThatChickNan) September 15, 2021
Cap Is Cool Tho
#WhatIf got the worst Tony Stark voice actor ever WTF 💀 they got a pretty good Steve Rogers tho
— ruben🦈🧟♀️ (@nightmareoppa) September 15, 2021
I Like It…
Oh my god Tony Stark’s replacement voice actor is really good
— Ken Matharoo (5G) (@ken_matharoo) September 15, 2021
Well, maybe there are a *few* Marvel fans out there who don’t mind the new Tony Stark – how about you?
In the end, the first Iron Man movie was released nearly fifteen years ago, so Marvel fans shouldn’t be surprised that stars like Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jeff Bridges didn’t come back. They really have moved on guys…
Marvel’s What If? streams new episodes weekly on Disney+.
