The question of whether Robert Downey Jr. will return as Iron Man was put to rest Tuesday on The Ellen Show . The host of the daytime talk show was able to get the word on Iron Man 4 straight from Tony Stark himself.
Ellen asked Downey Jr. directly if Iron Man 4 would happen. In the YouTube video below you can see the actor clearly confirm that the movie is, for all intents and purposes, happening.
Note that Downey Jr. says they are still in negotiations for Iron Man 4 . His current contract extension explicitly takes him through The Avengers 3 and then ends. This new contract is likely to be even more lucrative for the star, but there’s a larger question of whether it will involve more than just one more Iron Man flick. Remember, Marvel likes to lock its talent up into multi-film deals.
Current rumors circulating the internet wilds about the Marvel Cinematic Universe suggest that Marvel has something special planned after The Avengers 3 . It was originally thought to be the idea of splitting one movie into two, but has now grown into something else.
The additions of Scarlett Witch, Quicksilver, and The Vision in The Avengers: Age of Ultron plus other characters in stand-alone films like Ant-Man and Doctor Strange leaves the Marvel franchise with a growing roster to deal with. The current speculation is that some of these new characters will appear in The Avengers 3 , possibly led by Iron Man due to the current contract. Other established Avengers characters like Captain America and Thor would then appear in a larger movie in a crossover with Guardians of the Galaxy to deal with Thanos.
Plausible? As plausible as anything else dealing with a Marvel Universe that is full of all sorts of twists and turns. Marvel Studios is clearly building up to something though as it has dates listed for unannounced films through 2019. We know one of those to be The Avengers 3 , but it’s possible that Marvel wants to squeeze Iron Man 4 in there sometime afterwards — perhaps before the big mystery movie event.
At any rate, Marvel fans should be happy that they are getting more Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. He is the one that kicked off the whole Marvel universe when many thought Marvel Studios was going to fail with its obscure B-team characters since Spider-Man and X-Men were locked up with other movie studios.
What do you think of an Iron Man 4 ? Let us know in the comments below.
[Images via The Ellen Show , Marvel]