Marvel, as we’ve all learned, is on a seemingly unbeatable run. They nearly doubled the gross of the ‘Captain America’ franchise from the first film to the second, then made a movie about a raccoon and a tree, and turned it into the most successful movie in America so far this year, and their biggest non-Iron Man movie yet.
There’s a crucial phrase there: non-Iron Man movie. The studio’s only billion-dollar grossers to date have both featured megastar Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark—"The Avengers" and "Iron Man 3"—and given how well both have done (and, unless the film is made up entirely of Thor throwing kittens into a combine harvester, next year’s "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" is likely to be even bigger), you would think that Marvel would be prioritizing another ‘Iron Man’ movie.
But not so much, according to the film’s star. In Toronto for the premiere of his new film "The Judge," Downey Jr. told Variety, when asked about a possible fourth solo movie for Stark, "There isn’t one in the pipe. No, there’s no plan for a fourth ‘Iron Man.’ " That feels fairly definitive to us, and with Marvel’s crammed schedule, which includes new ‘Thor,’ ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ and ‘Captain America’ movies, plus "Ant-Man," "Doctor Strange" and various others on the way, there isn’t a whole bunch of room for another ‘Iron Man,’ even if they didn’t have to pay Downey Jr. the GDP of a mid-sized country to get him to turn up.
That said, Downey Jr.’s shown no sign of going anywhere, whereas there have been whispers that Chris Evans, who’s rumored to want to retire from acting at the end of his Marvel contract to focus on directing, is planning to hang up his Captain America shield. But Evans says, in an interview with MTV, that he’s not rushing his exit, "Who’s handing off the shield? Don’t take my job from me prematurely dude. I’m sure it’ll happen at some point, all good things have to come to an end. But I’m really happy playing the character." Unlucky for Sebastian Stan and/or Anthony Mackie.
In other superhero-related movie news, a "Supergirl" TV show may be in the works [THR], while "X-Men: Apocalypse" will go before cameras in Montreal next April [Flicks And Bits]. Al Pacino, unexpectedly, loved "Guardians Of The Galaxy," and is theoretically up for a Marvel movie [Deadline], while Jessica Chastain (once rumored for "Iron Man 3") says that she’d like to tackle the superhero genre too [The Guardian]. Finally, disappointing Marvel spin-off series "Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D." is soon to return for a second season: watch the first trailer below [Live For Films].