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Robert Downey Jr. Joins Captain America 3

If you recall, Robert Downey Jr. threw us for a loop last week when he somewhat confirmed Iron Man 4 but then went back on his statement, saying that instead, he'll be showing up in other Marvel films. While we know that he'll obviously star in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and likely the third Avengers film, too, we can now add another superhero pic to his slate: Captain America 3.

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If you recall, Robert Downey Jr. threw us for a loop last week when he somewhat confirmed Iron Man 4 but then went back on his statement, saying that instead, he’ll be showing up in other Marvel films. While we know that he’ll obviously star in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and likely the third Avengers film, too, we can now add another superhero pic to his slate: Captain America 3.

Yup, that’s right. The film will be adapting the famous “Civil War” plot from the comics and Downey Jr. will be suiting up as Iron Man. If you’re unfamiliar with the exciting story, check out the plot summary below:

Civil War follows the implementation and consequences of the Superhuman Registration Act, a legislative bill which required the mandatory registration of any person based in the United States with super powers…

The prospect of registration divided the superhuman community down the middle, with Tony Stark, the superhero Iron Man who had previously tried to halt the act, becoming the pro-registration figurehead, and Captain America leading the anti-registration group. Iron Man, with Mr. Fantastic and Henry Pym, argued that the changing political landscape meant that resisting the law was pointless, and that it is reasonable for heroes to have proper training and oversight, whereas Captain America, alongside Luke Cage and Falcon argued that heroes required secrecy in order to protect aspects of their “normal” life, such as spouses and children, and to allow them to act in whatever means necessary against threats which the ordinary emergency services couldn’t cope with.

Apparently, the original plan was just to have the actor come on board for a small role. Downey Jr., however, wanted to have a larger part in the story, an idea that Marvel Entertainment chief Ike Perlmutter was not on board with. Then, Kevin Feige came to the rescue and worked out a deal to have RDJ play a bigger role in order to incorporate the “Civil War” storyline, since it’s essential in “driving the plots of sequels and new franchises for the next seven years.”

According to Variety:

“The fallout from the government and Stark’s actions would factor into a new ‘Avengers 4’ film and beyond that will assemble new characters being introduced like Ant-Man and Doctor Strange, among others, in their own movies.”

Downey Jr. didn’t come cheap though, as he’s about to sign a $40 million deal with the studio, and that doesn’t include the various bonuses. The actor wasn’t signed on for anything beyond Avengers 3, so the fact that he’s now in bed with Marvel again and has a new deal in hand likely means that we’ll be seeing him in a lot more of the studio’s future films. How far his deal extends is unclear, but we’re pretty sure that they have big plans for the character now that he’s signing a new deal with them.

On another note, but still related, Joe and Anthony Russo are said to be frontrunners to helm Avengers 3 and 4. This hasn’t been confirmed just yet, but Badass Digest seems to think that the brothers will be behind the camera for those aforementioned films. Given the success that they had with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, I wouldn’t be surprised if Marvel wanted to keep them around for a bit longer.

Captain America 3 will burst into theatres on May 6, 2016. Only then will we know if studio’s ambitious plans have paid off. Until then, though, head on down to the comments and let us know what you think about Marvel bringing the “Civil War” storyline to the big screen.