After Iron Man 3 opened to extremely positive reviews and very impressive box office numbers, Marvel is scrambling to lock up their prized possession: Robert Downey Jr. For those unaware, the actor currently has no contract with the studio. After the success that the original Iron Man film saw, Downey Jr. worked out a deal where he would receive a percentage of the first-day gross for all future films. This ultimately ended up in his favor as he earned somewhere around $50 million (though some say it was closer to $70 million) for The Avengers. Unfortunately though, the actor’s contract with Marvel expired after his third solo outing as Iron Man and now, his future within the Marvel universe is uncertain.
Currently, the studio is talking with their star about plans to appear in The Avengers 2. As mentioned before, the actor isn’t contractually obligated to appear in the film, neither are a number of the other actors that appeared in The Avengers. For instance, Chris Hemsworth still isn’t officially locked in yet. Marvel is in the process of re-signing everyone from the first film and THR is now reporting that while Robert Downey Jr. is looking to sign on for The Avengers 2 and The Avengers 3, there’s still no word on Iron Man 4.
Now, if you’ve seen Iron Man 3, you’ll know that *SPOILER ALERT* the fate of the character is very much left up in the air. We may see someone else in the suit other than Tony Stark or there may not even be an Iron Man at all. Right now we just don’t know. *SPOILER ALERT*
We know from characters like The Hulk that Marvel has no trouble recasting but at this point, choosing someone else to play Tony Stark doesn’t seem like a good move. Sure, Don Cheadle might be able to lead a fourth Iron Man film but we all know that the franchise won’t be the same without Robert Downey Jr. Plus, the Marvel films with RDJ tend to do better than the films without him. He’s the most charismatic and likeable actor of the group and his character is easily the most popular in Marvel’s universe.
All things considered, at this point in time, I can’t see Marvel recasting Tony Stark and that means that without Robert Downey Jr., there won’t be an Iron Man 4 and if they can’t sign him on for The Avengers 2 or 3, then they’re going to have a serious problem.
Robert Downey Jr. isn’t the only problem for the studio right now though.
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