Robert Downey Jr Says No Plans for 'Iron Man 4'

It looks like the days of seeing Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man are limited. This shouldn't be too surprising as there was some struggle to get RDJ to sign on for Avengers 2 and 3 after the box office success of Iron Man 3.

While promoting his new film, The Judge, Downey addressed the possibility of a third Iron Man sequel.

"There isn’t one in the pipe,” Downey said. “No, there’s no plan for a fourth ‘Iron Man.'"

Of course this doesn't rule it completely out of the picture. It could be a matter of entering new negotiations but the actor has expressed his interest in working on other non-superhero films. There is also the possibility of Marvel Studios focusing on other characters to build new franchises with or even recasting the role of Iron Man.

When asked if he would let someone else take the role, Downey replied:

"I like that the idea is that it would be up to me, like I’m casting director for Marvel."

We'll see Robert Downey Jr next as Iron Man in Avengers: Age of Ultron, opening May 1, 2015.

Do you want an Iron Man 4? How would you feel if the role was recast?

Source: Variety

no recast . let the movies for the individual characters just be trilogies .

Nooooo I want more!!!!!

I hope we do see a 4th film, I'd really like to see where that "All Hail the King" one shot leads to.

People should really pay attention to that comment. Because even the amount of money he can leverage, actors do not have the power when ti comes to movies.

They will recast him eventually. RDJ has done good work and I'm fine. Every character will be recast eventually. It can work out just fine and sometimes better.

WHAT!? They just fixed the whole "Mandarin" f*ck-up, and now they're just gonna abandon ship? Are they really going to let the crappy, underdeveloped, never-shoulda-happened, crappy villain'ed, subplot-solved-to-easily, crappy-armor-having, piece of chicken$#!% called "Iron Man 3" be Shellhead's last solo movie?

My thoughts exactly.

@fallschirmjager: I don't want him recast but yes indeed they could do it and make it work. We've seen Hulk and War Machine recast without anyone blinking. Obviously RDJ is more front and center but it could be done. Then again, maybe he'll come around or Marvel will offer even more money.

I don't. Iron Man revived his career, but he's basically done nothing but Iron Man like characters since then. He needs to branch out and grow back into that superstar actor we saw back when he was doing all the drugs.

Its better for him if he stops being Iron Man. At least if he puts more weight on prestige/acting renown than money, which he may not (some actors do though).

Even his new film he was very Iron Manish for a big portion of that trailer

I also don't know why people are so against having someone else play Iron Man. To be honest these films feel more like they've been about him playing Tony Stark, then being genuine Iron Man stories.

I'm ok with that, might get excited if I knew they were doing one and Shane Black was not going to be anywhere near it.

I reeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllly want a fourth IM film, and I want RDJ, if he was recast I'd still watch but I want RDJ asTony

Lame. I remember seeing him on some talk show just after IM 1, and he said "I love being ironman, I'll do like a thousand of these!" I was like yeah, way to pay homage to a roll that revitalized your career.. Good on ya.

Now I'm just sad.

Predictable.

Oh well...

They could very well play that out in an Avengers movie. Mandarin has, in past, being a foe for the Avengers too. Though they probably wont, because jumping from Ultron / Thanos to Mandarin might feel like Avengers are being victimized by recession.

@claymore1998: Exactly, Marvel has been very careful to follow that rule of film in which you have to make each threat bigger for each film series. Compared to threats like Ultron or Thanos, the Mandarin does not seem like too big of a deal.

How did they fix the Mandarin muck up?

Not having Iron Man have a fourth movie has been part of the cinematic plan for a while now. Marvel Studios is focusing on other characters, and IM will develop through the Avengers movies.

If anything, RDJ will probably just be Director of SHIELD in Avengers 3 and only put on the suit for the climactic battle.

@captainmarvel4ever:

Marvel can't obviously keep doing this though. It's pretty hard to top Thanos with Infinity Gauntlet as a villain. I am scratching my head to see who from marvel would even qualify as a bigger villain, Chaos King perhaps? I can't even think of anyone bigger.

They obviously have to tone down after the third movie. Beside they can use mandarin as a Thor villain as well, he has been Thor villain in the past.They could also likewise open up War Machine movie, and he can be a villain to War Machine.

Or worse comes to worse, they can sort of make a evil version of Avengers with Mandarin as one of the character.

There is a lot they could do, its just that i dont think they will do it.

Good news all round!
As great as he was in Iron man 1, all that character growth and charm was for nothing after every film since then has made him making him to an egotistical jerk. A great actor completely wasted by poor direction from the studio,directors and writers. A good director would reel him in, keep him focused, controlled and tone him down. It feels like Marvel and Favreau don't get why people like Iron Man 1 or the idea that less is more. Honestly, Downey Jr remains the least appealing thing about Avengers 2. at least the Ruffalo, johansson and evans acting will out shine him like they did original Avengers.

I'm not sure what that has to do with his statement. He mentioned that a fourth film was not currently in development, not that he wouldn't be willing to do it.

In fact, evidence actually points to the contrary.

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/gen-discussion-1/robert-downey-jr-willing-to-do-iron-man-4-after-al-1585895/

Shameless self-promotion? A bit, but point stands. :P

I mean, even in this very article you cite his quote where he mentions how he finds it amusing that people think it's up to him on whether or not someone else is going to take over.

I really just want Marvel Movies to go the way of James Bond type movies where an actor does a trilogy or a little more and they just sort of recast as naturally as they can. It would be like when comics change writers and artists. One day it's gonna have to happen, I just hope they don't feel they have to reboot the franchise cause of recasts. I want the story to kind of just continue forward.

@hyiena said:

They reveled that someone else called the Mandarin who leads the Ten Rings exists, and he is not happy someone else has been using his name, leaving the door open for the possibility of the real Mandarin existing in the MCU.

@claymore1998 said:

They could use the Celestials, they would be a good substitute for Galactus.

They could use him for a War Machine movie, but they have other plans for Thor.

I would be down for an evil organization of anti-Avengers featuring the Mandarin.

I think they will, Marvel has proven to use they will go the distance for the fans.

@captainmarvel4ever: Oh in the One-shot got it never saw the end of it.

Good. Iron Man has had his run and it's time for other characters to see the spotlight...

I'd be okay with them saving Iron Man for the big event movies. I mean he had two movies before most even had one! I'd say wait until Cap and Thor do their trilogy, Guardians and Ant-Man get their 2nd, and Doctor Strange and others in works have been established. I love RDJ as Stark, but I don't want to get any fatigue with the character. He's had his time to shine and he essentially started the MCU, let others get their time before going back to a solo Iron Man story.

I wouldn't mind it staying a trilogy, but with the new Mandarin reveal in that short it'd be nice to see where that leads.

I would prefer other heroes get their own franchises up and running though, Iron Man had a great spotlight but I want to see others front and center like Captain Marvel and Black Panther.

Great news there are many characters they also need a solo movie and this character already have 3...

Can't recast him at this point. If they have to , kill him off in avengers 3 perhaps. I mean Marvel needs some epic death's right ? Agent Coulson doesn't count :P. .

Why would they make a 4th Iron Man so everyone can watch it just to complain about how bad it is. They'll just say, "the first one was better."

So whys?

Muahhhajajajaja

Why would they make a 4th Iron Man so everyone can watch it just to complain about how bad it is. They'll just say, "the first one was better."

So whys?

Muahhhajajajaja

good after the failure of ironman 3 its better to have other solo hero movies

I don't really have a problem with that, I want a Hulk movie.

Whatever RDJ's Iron Man swan song may be I hope it ends on a high note.

I feel like RDJ gives a different answer every time he's asked about Iron Man.

I completely trust Marvel on anything they decide. They have yet to fail my expectations on a movie.

Robert is great as Tony Stark(even if our first choice years back was Tom Selleck)but I understand he didn't want to became synonimous ONLY with that character/role...Like Sean Connery does with James Bond...Of course there will be other good actors who can play the role when the IRON MAN movies rebooted(like Spiderman movies)but of course we'll said to him a big thank you for make Tony Stark/Iron Man alive as characters.

I think Marc Anthony should be cast as Tony Stark. He has the look.

Meh. I never was a big fan of the Ironman trilogy.

Personally I like the idea of putting the Iron Man franchise on the shelf for right now. We have an Iron Man trilogy and IM3 felt like a definite end for RDJ's time as Tony Stark in the MCU, outside of the Avengers of course.

Really, after three movies I think it would make more sense to place those characters on the shelf, instead focusing on another franchise for a while and continuing to build and expand the MCU. Later on, after some time has pasted, they could always bring the the Iron Man franchise back with a new lead actor and pick up where Avengers 3 (which I assume Iron Man will be in) leaves off with Tony's story.

This would allow Marvel to save Iron Man for another day, allowing them time to both focus on another characters and also figure out exactly where they want to go with the Iron Man franchise in the future. It also helps from burning people out with too many Iron Man movies, especially after the last two weren't received that well by fans like IM2 and IM3.

He said the same thing like the week after Iron Man 3 came out. If they made an Iron Man 4 they should just have it be about Arno Stark, but honestly they can take a break.

Hope they just let that franchise phase out and allow others to come up and take some shine.

Thank goodness. The only one that was actually enjoyable was the first one. I'm not against them recasting him in the future but for now I think they should keep the solo films as trilogies and then start to turn their attention to the new characters like Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Inhumans, Captain Marvel, etc.

@captainmarvel4ever said:

Yeah, it was on the DVD for Thor 2

This

I'm probably in the minority, but I'd be fine with them finding a way to send off RDJ's version of the character in Avengers 3 and then maybe recasting and doing another Iron Man movie afterward. Keep it in continuity, but recast. RDJ is great, but recasting is inevitable anyway and I'd prefer they not run his version of the character into the ground.

I'm fine with this. Iron Man 1 is great, 2 is crap and 3 is an average mess. They will probably recast everyone when the 3rd avengers film wraps anyway

Agreed :)

I like this idea.

Oh well, that's unfortunate. It would've been nice to see Marvel fix their massive mistakes from Iron Man 3, which has been the worst Marvel Studios movie so far.