Scripted programming is the last-ditch claim to fame of a fading star. Reality television is the true land of all possibilities and riches and a paradox for the way it signals a star's descent from the top. But what if it's not always the case?
Out of all the people you'd imagine would get on the reality show gravy train, Robert Downey Jr. is perhaps the last to come to mind. But he's doing it with excellent partners, for an excellent purpose, and with typical flair while throwing open the doors to his personal garage. Which is packed, apparently.
As such, the result promises to be a highly entertaining, fun, and revealing series, scheduled to premiere on Max on June 22. Max is the former HBO Max, now separate from HBO and offering more Discovery content, now going for the auto enthusiast community. Downey's Dream Cars is a fresh offering, a limited series that will combine two of the actor's biggest passions, classic American cars and a desire to do right by our planet.
The result is innovation – or maybe blasphemy in the eye of the purist auto-enthusiasts – but it will be fun nonetheless because RDJ is in it. The first trailer for the series promises as much, with RDJ explaining how he came to love American cars of the '60s and ‘70s, how his acting career taking off finally allowed him to build a dream collection, and how that collection came to clash with his dreams of leaving behind a better world for the kids.
It was that last thing that kept him motivated over the past three years, building a team of mechanics and professionals that would assist him in a task that hasn't been done before, either on this scale or by a single individual. Downey is converting a big chunk of his personal fleet into hybrids or fully-fledged EVs, including a gorgeous Stingray Corvette that steals the spotlight for a few seconds in the trailer. Blasphemous, we told you. But also fun.
"We are what we drive, and having amassed a formidable collection of classic cars over the years, I was a petrol-spewing mess," RDJ says in a statement accompanying the first trailer release. "And a hypocrite, as I’d founded the Footprint Coalition in 2019 to scale technologies that mitigate climate change."
Decarbonizing his classics is one way of stepping into the future with a clean conscience and without giving up on his love of cars. The series will see him seek out new additions to the fleet and overseeing the conversion of those at the same time as his older rides.
RDJ is not just the star of the show but also serves as executive producer through his and his wife's production company, Team Downey. The same statement promises that the conversions will keep the cars' “soul intact" and, as such, show that you can have the best of both worlds: enjoy a classic car and look forward to the future by adapting to the needs of today.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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