Iron Man is one of the most popular superhero in the world of Marvel and the primary reason for the character becoming so popular in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Robert Downey Jr., who has brought the character to life. Given the popularity of the character, fans were hopeful that Marvel would announce Iron Man 4 soon enough.
In fact, Robert Downey Jr. had expressed his desire to don the iron suit once more for a standalone Iron Man movie. As reported by Hall of Fame Magazine, Iron Man 4 doesn’t look like a possibility. Robert Downey Jr. has himself said that Captain America: Civil War, will be sort of like Iron Man 4 for him since the fourth instalment of Iron Man’s standalone film doesn’t seem to be on the cards for Marvel.
Parent Herald reported that Robert Downey Jr. had himself spoken about Iron Man 4 and had cleared the fact that it doesn’t look like it is going to be made. Captain America: Civil War will be the film that he has to consider to be a smaller version of Iron Man 4 for his character. Since this will give way to the larger picture of the Avengers, where everything else moves into the background.
There have been talks suggesting that even if Marvel does decide to go ahead and plan for Iron Man 4 it will not star Robert Downey Jr. There are quite a few reasons for this and one of the main reasons being that Robert Downey Jr. will be pretty old for the role.
He had himself expressed this concern and Marvel Studio is very honest about their characterization. They aren’t going to go ahead with Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in Iron Man 4, only because the fans love him.
There are talks of a younger actor stepping into the shoes of Robert Downey Jr. Before it was cleared that Iron Man 4 isn’t in the horizon for Marvel Studio, there were reports suggesting that Ty Simpkins will be asked to play the role of the Iron Man. However, Joe Russo, the director of Captain America: Civil War has said that it will be impossible to replace Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man.
He said that the only way to make it happen would be to take Iron Man away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a long time and then bring the character back to reboot the whole franchise. This would be the only feasible option where the fans would accept another young actor to fill the shoes of Robert Downey Jr. A generational gap is going to be needed to allow another character to redefine the superhero.
There were rumors that Marvel isn’t looking to make Iron Man 4 since they do not feel the need of a standalone movie for the superhero. Marvel had focused on standalone superhero movies in the first phase of its Cinematic Universe since they needed the audience to connect with the superheroes before they formed the Avengers.
Iron Man had been one of the most successful franchise for the studio in the past, but it has been taken over by Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy and hence the studio doesn’t see a need to go for the fourth instalment of Iron Man.
Robert Downey Jr. is also a very expensive actor. Marvel already has a contract with him, where he is set to make an appearance in the Avengers movies.