Will Robert Downey Jr. return as Iron Man? At the moment that question is up in the air, as while it’s been assumed he’ll be back for Avengers 2, his deal with Marvel has come to an end with Iron Man 2. Now THR reports the actor held a private dinner in Los Angeles a couple of nights to celebrate the success of Iron Man 3, which also marked the start of negotiations for The Avengers 2 and The Avengers 3.
It appears that while the actor is open to returning for The Avengers 2 and 3, as things stand he does not want to return for a stand-alone Iron Man 4 (something that’s been echoed by other actors, such as Gwyneth Paltrow).
In April, Downey Jr. suggested he wanted to “retire” his Tony Stark character, but he didn’t leave a timetable as to when he wanted to do so.
Both the actor and Marvel now have some tough negotiations, as Downey Jr. is arguably the cornerstone of the whole Marvel universe, as the movies he’s appeared in have grossed significantly more than the ones he hasn’t. However while the studio is well known for not paying big fees to its actors, Downey is the exception to that. His current deal is believed to give him around 5% of the box office gross of an Marvel film he’s in, which earned him an estimated $50 million from The Avengers.
Marvel has previously shown that it’s willing to replace actors, such as swapping Terrence Howard for Don Cheadle following the first Iron Man movie and threatening to replace Chris Evans during contract negotiations with him. However replacing Downey Jr. with a new actor would be a massive bet. They could get that actor a lot cheaper, but may well lose out at the box office in the long run.
At the moment it looks like some sort of deal will be worked out for the actor to appear in The Avengers 2, which is due slated for release on May 1, 2015. The Avengers 3 is likely to be released in 2017, but Downey Jr.’s involvement is less certain.