14 DAY TRIAL // Robert Downey Jr. still can’t make up his mind about the future of the “Iron Man” franchise and the chances of him reprising the Tony Stark / Iron Man role for a fourth installment of the same. After saying not long ago that he would definitely not be back, he seems to have had a change of heart in this new THR interview.
Video of this segment of the chat is embedded below: that’s Susan by his side, his wife and longtime partner, a big time Hollywood producer.
As you can see, the actor is trying to downplay his previous comments, but he stops just short of confirming that he’ll be back. Meanwhile, fans must be at a loss as to what to believe.
Robert Downey Jr. is signed to playing Iron Man just once more
Shooting for “Avengers: Age of Ultron” has wrapped, and RDJ is bound by contract to doing just one more Marvel movie as Iron Man and that one will probably turn out to be the third “Avengers” because, so far, the studio is yet to announce a fourth standalone Iron Man film.
This means that his future as the famous superhero is uncertain, something to which he’s hinted several times before. Whenever the third “Avengers” movie happens, it will most definitely be after 2016, so add another couple of years for “Iron Man 4.” By that time, he will be too old (by Hollywood standards, not real-life ones) to play the charismatic Tony Stark, and most importantly, will want to move past this stage in his career.
That seems to be the reasoning with RDJ too, saying last month that he wasn’t aware of any plans for a fourth “Iron Man” with him as the titular character.
Either he’s not ready to slam the door just yet on Marvel or he’s not at liberty to say. Our money’s on the latter.
“I’m sure we’ll ride that thing. You’ve got to surf that all the way in to shore,” he tells THR, asked about his future in the “Iron Man” franchise.
Which means nothing, if you think about it, though it does seem like he’s saying he will still be on board the franchise.
RDJ helped Marvel build the Avengers universe, but is adorably modest
The actor is credited as the key player who helped Marvel build the Avengers universe, the most successful comic book-based film universe of the moment. He did that by playing Iron Man in the first standalone pic in 2008, and doing such an amazing job that the film is still held as one of the best of the genre to this day.
Well, if you ask him, he’d say he was just lucky to be part of something as big as this Marvel trend. Modesty never looked hotter than on Robert Downey Jr.
“I think I was at the forefront of something that was coming into being, and I think it has carried me as much as I have informed it. That's the healthy way to look at it. It's so easy to become inflated by the successes, but what they really are are long, strong trends. It's just another wave,” he explains.
The comic book movie genre is indeed a “wave,” making Marvel’s rivals Warner Bros. and Sony launch their own (less successful) franchises as a response, but Downey shouldn’t downplay his role in getting it all off the ground.
Few are the fans who would imagine any other actor as Tony Stark / Iron Man, which inevitably means that most will be very angry when the time comes to say goodbye – and see him replaced.