Robert Downey Jr. on New Iron Man Riri Williams: Tony Stark Approves!

It's been a few days since Marvel gave the world a new Iron Man, in the form of a 15-year-old African-Amercian girl named Riri Williams, and the decision from the comic book giant has raised a few eyebrows. Still, one person is definitely behind the decision to change the character's gender and ethnicity: Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr.!

Following female Thor (which ended up being Jane Foster) and Korean-American Hulk, the latest superhero getting swapped is Iron Man. In the comic books, teenage genius Riri Williams, an M.I.T. student, catches Tony Stark's attention after she reverse-engineered one of his old Iron Man armors -- and he decides she's the perfect person to take up the mantle from then on.

And the real-life version of Tony Stark definitely agrees with his comic book counterpart: last Thursday, Downey Jr. took to Twitter to share his enthusiasm over the newest rendition of Iron Man.

Get ready for a new generation of Marvel BAMF... pic.twitter.com/nMChfQkh0n

— Robert Downey Jr (@RobertDowneyJr) July 7, 2016

It's no surprise to see Downey supporting whatever new things Marvel introduces: thanks to the Cinematic Universe, he's turned into the highest-paid actor in the world, making hundreds of millions a year. He's set to reprise his role of Tony Stark again next year, joining Tom Holland in the stand-alone Spider-Man MCU film, Homecoming.

At 51, the Oscar-nominated actor, who's the biggest name in Marvel Studios and probably among the most recognizable faces in the world, could be getting too old to play Iron Man. While he's contracted for a few new movies as Tony Stark, the end of his career as a superhero might be drawing near, and the idea of introducing a new iteration of the Iron Man character could mean Riri Williams could take up the mantle on the big screen eventually as well.

While Downey is all for the new Iron Man, the new character has been met with some controversy. While there doesn't seem to be a problem with the fact that the superhero name now has a different gender and ethnicity, Vulture reports that fans have taken issue with something else altogether: the character was not created by an artist coming from a minority.

Brian Michael Bendis, who co-created the character of Riri Williams as well as Netflix heroine Jessica Jones and Latino Spider-Man Miles Morales, is a white man, and some are wondering why characters from different ethnicities aren't coming from the hand of ethnical minorities. Since the announcement of the new Iron Man, there have been concerns over lack of representation in comic book writers and artists.