With Marvel announcing five new release dates last week, there’s been much speculation as to what properties could fill the seven currently-unnanounced slots on the studio’s slate. The Avengers 3 will presumably occupy the May 2019 release date, and with Doctor Strange and Thor 3 taking up another two, that leaves us with four mystery movies to debate over.
Considering the runaway box office success of Iron Man 3 (with over $1.2 billion in the bank), it raises the question whether Marvel is ready to give Tony Stark another solo outing for Iron Man 4. Robert Downey Jr. has appeared reluctant to commit to another Iron Man movie (his current deal is for Avengers: Age of Ultron and The Avengers 3 only), but would he be open to another solo outing if it was on the cards?
“It’s down to Kevin Feige and Ike Perlmutter [CEO of Marvel Entertainment] and Disney to come to us with what the proposal is, and that’s on us to agree or disagree,” Downey tells EW. “When things are going great, there’s a lot of agreement. Right now, this has just been swell, hasn’t it? [Age of Ultron] has been a really good one and it feels good and we’re having a good time. It’s that thing of: why give up the belt when it feels like you can barely get jabbed? Most people are saying that right when they get knocked out. The future is, as usual, uncertain.”
Kevin Feige has indicated that Iron Man 4 will happen eventually, and has suggested that they’d be willing to go down the Bond route of replacing their leads when the time comes for the current crop of actors to call it a day. However, if Iron Man 4 is to feature in Phase Three, they’re not going to have another actor come in with RDJ then returning for Avengers 3…
Personally, I’d not be surprised if Iron Man 4 is announced during Marvel’s Comic-Con panel on Saturday.
Would you like to see Iron Man 4 as part of Marvel’s Phase Three, and which movies do you think will join Ant-Man and Captain America 3 as part of Marvel’s slate?
Originally published July 23, 2014. Updated January 18, 2020.
