Iron Man 3 actor Ty Simpkins, who played Harley Keener, approved of the fan theory surrounding the actor taking on the role of Iron Lad following the events of Avengers: Endgame.
Simpkins, who reprised his role as Harley Keener in Avengers: Endgame in a cameo appearance during Tony Stark’s funeral, spoke to IGN about his cameo and the Iron Lad fan theory.
Simpkins revealed how he reacted when he got the news, they wanted him to appear in Avengers: Endgame:
“It was so cool coming back. When they gave me the call that I was going to do it, I was freaking out and screaming in the car. At first it wasn’t confirmed that I was going to come back and I didn’t want to mess it up. So my mom was asking ‘What is it? What is it?’ and I couldn’t tell her!”
He then touched on what was going through Harley’s mind while attending Tony’s funeral hinting that he believes Harley and Tony have remained in contact.
“I like to think that they did and that Tony was still taking care of him, because for Harley that bond was super close and he was his kind of his only father figure. So that’s what I was thinking about in the funeral scene, about how sad Harley would have been.”
He would then fully support the fan theory that Harley Keener could become the Young Avengers known as Iron Lad.
“Yes, 100%. I would love that!”
In the comics, Iron Lad was first introduced in 2005 in Young Avengers by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung.
The character is actually the past self of the time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror. He would discover his future when Kang the Conqueror took him through time to witness his journey from the young man named Nathaniel Richards into the super villain known as Kang the Conqueror. However, the plan to inspire the young Richards doesn’t work. The young man flees Kang the Conqueror and travels back into the past. He then assembles the Young Avengers and models his armor after Iron Man. After fighting and defeating his future self, the timeline radically alters with a number of his own teammates including Wiccan and Hulkling disappearing. In order to correct this problem with the timeline, Nate returns to the future where he takes on the role of Kang the Conqueror.
Even with the knowledge of potentially becoming Marvel’s next big bad, Keener was still on board to become Iron Lad and even Kang the Conqueror, “I’d do it, I’d do it. Without a doubt.”
Would you be interested in seeing Simpkins take on the role of Kang the Conqueror and Iron Lad?