Is Marvel Planning to Cast a New Tony Stark After Iron Man 3?

Posted by on April 30th, 2012   Filed under: Action, Books/Comics, Rumours
Source: Badass Digest

Although everyone seems pretty focused on The Avengers right now (especially considering that all the positive reviews are pushing the hype through the roof), we know that a large part of Marvel’s success has been the ability to think more than a few moves ahead. They have announced that the next three Marvel movies to hit theatres after The Avengers will be Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and Captain America 2 respectively, but with such big and potentially expensive stars in the roles, these franchises can’t possibly hope to continue on indefinitely. Or can they? Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige recently revealed a somewhat unexpected view of the Iron Man character, which is that he sees it being similar to James Bond with various actors taking on the role over time. Here is what he had to say:


“I think Bond is a good example. Let’s put it this way: I hope Downey makes a lot of movies for us as Stark. If and when he doesn’t, and I’m still here making these movies, we don’t take him to Afghanistan and have him wounded again. I think we James Bond it.”

The quote comes from an interview with Badass Digest, where Feige also asserts that the negative connotation of the term “reboot” needs to go away because it’s not always a bad thing. He claims that The Amazing Spider-Man, for example, is “totally fresh and unique.”

In this case, however, it sounds like he’s saying that they won’t actually reboot Iron Man once Robert Downey Jr. leaves, but simply recast the character and continue on as if nothing has changed (essentially what they did with War Machine already). I think one of the main reasons for this is that since all of their franchises are now interconnected, you can’t just reboot Iron Man without rebooting all of the others as well. I guess it makes sense, but I don’t know why they wouldn’t just introduce a new character in the same continuity who could don the suit in place of Tony Stark, as comic books so often do.

At any rate, it’s still somewhat unclear exactly when this might become an issue. Iron Man 3 would be Robert Downey Jr.’s fourth time playing Tony Stark, but he had supposedly signed a four-picture deal starting with Iron Man 2 which means he could potentially appear in another film (ie. The Avengers 2) as well without needing to negotiation a new deal. For what it’s worth, Robert Downey Jr. responded to these comments on the red carpet, telling MTV that “things are looking like that they could go on for a long while.” What do you think, is Robert Downey Jr. replaceable as Tony Stark? Is it smart for Marvel to maintain continuity or should they just reboot everything once the current actors leave?



  • Maopheus

    Seems like they would make good on their implied promise to move Tony Stark into an advisor role for SHIELD/Avengers, and get someone else to wear the armor. Therefore, Downey would still be able to make further appearances in perhaps a cameo role only. I mean, obviously, he can’t play the role actively forever. He’s pushing 50. (He’ll be 48 when IM3 comes out.) It will be difficult to maintain the continuity that was started with Iron Man for very long though. I know many of the actors were signed to lengthy deals, but who actually believes they will all see out those contracts? Avengers 2 may be 2014, 2015? If there’s a third, it will be another 2-3 years after that. It will be hard mainly because the main characters will all to juggle their own movies along with the Avengers movies. Obviously Avengers is going to make a boatload, and it will a nice carryover effect on the next round of sequels. I still less potential for some of the smaller names, like a Nick Fury movie, or a SHIELD/Agent Coulson movie or a Black Widow/Hawkeye team-up. I think that will be a good test to see how strong the franchise really is, once you start trying to water it down too much. When they want to make a movie about Nick Fury’s eyepatch, then you know they are really reaching.

  • Nelson

    Wow, this is a really tough call. Right now, when I think of “Iron Man” I think of Robert Downey, JR, exclusively. I can’t picture another actor in that role.

    Even if they just completely took Robert out of the picture and used Don Cheadle in future films as “War Machine”, instead, I, personally, would still hugely feel the loss of Downey.

    I liked “Thor”, some, and I thought “Captain America” was a good movie, but “Iron Man” feels the most “real” to me, if I can say that without being stoned :)

    I pray to God that they can keep this cast together for AT LEAST one more Avengers film, because if I see the movie this week and it delivers, I know that I will want to seem them all together at least one more time.

    I know it’s kind of tricky, because Marvel has to work with the characters that they have at their disposal, but they really need more characters, on screen, that have as much of a distinctive personality as Tony Stark, if possible.

    I haven’t seen “The Avengers” yet, so it’s possible that all the other team members will stand out as much as Tony, but I really don’t think so; we’ll see. Captain America may have the same impact as Tony, except at the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

    Ultimately, I guess I want to see them expand on the success of “The Avengers” with some of the other Marvel franchises. I want to see live versions of some of their other characters that I can get really excited about.

    I really hope that DC Comics and Warner Brothers are watching and paying close attention to the success of the Avengers, because I would enjoy a JLA movie of this same quality and caliber, if they could pull it together.

    Whatever Marvel does, if they can keep the same actor on board for at least 2 movies in a row, I think that’s pretty good these days.

    I would like Downey to be Iron Man forever, but I know eventually he will get sick of it, if he hasn’t already.

  • Anonymous

    I think Robert should sign a new contract with Marvel for more movies which includes Iron Man, it would be bad to see a reboot when he did such a great job in two movies + The Avengers. If they absolutly have to make another movie after the third one why not cast Johnny Deep?

  • Does anyone that watches comic book movies actually read the books? Everyone talks doom and gloom about how if the actors leave, it’s the end, or if the current filmmakers leave, it’s the end, but as any good comic reader can tell you, as Marvel can tell you (with Fiege telling us on their behalf), life goes on.

    The worst thing to do is bring things to a dead stop and MAKE a big deal out of it like it IS the end of the world, to paint yourself into a corner and have no choice but to start over. Just because someone’s deal is up, it’s no reason to leave nothing for the next guy when *gasp* the studio decides it wants to continue the franchise, or at least keep making money off of it. Look at it like a change of a creative team, like if an artist or writer leaves a book. As long as the next person in charge keeps things going in the right direction, whether it’s continuing the story started by the last team or at least keeping with the tone, aesthetic, or whatever else has been working up to this point, there should be no problem.

    If Downey (or any of the other actors in the Avengers franchise) and Marvel ever decide to part ways in an amicable fashion, Marvel shouldn’t have to do more than assure us that the next guy is a suitable replacement. Hell, they sold us on Downey when no one was really willing to take much of a chance on him in the first place. That’s a lot easier than re-building from the ground up, isn’t it? I mean, Amazing Spider-Man might be great, and while I’m looking forward to it, the fact that a lot of this ground seems like it’s already been covered overshadows it quite a bit. Marvel has thought of all of this I’m sure, and they’re much more mindful of it than the studios handling their non-Avengers properties.

  • Brendan

    First, comics “reboot” their characters all the time, so I don’t see it as quite a big deal that the movies have done it. Especially since the public tends to tie a specific actor to the character.

    But I wouldn’t mind seeing a different actor take over the role of comic character without rebooting the whole series. While re-imaginations of the characters can be interesting, it can feel like retreading if they keep redoing the same origins, plot points and villains. There’s also more character development and plots that can exist if you don’t reboot.

    Of course, Batman sort of tried and failed at the Bond thing of recasting the lead role with out rebooting, but the bigger problem with those films was the director and writers. And with the Marvel characters being tied to the Avengers, it makes more sense to recast rather than reboot, so they can continue the “universe” that they created.

  • #5- The 89-97 Batman films are a good example, as each of those film were standalone. While it’s expected that you saw the first one at least, the sequels weren’t bogged down in any continuity, and you didn’t really need to see any of the others, or in any particular order. And as you mentioned, when that series was done in, it was hardly the actor under the mask’s fault (hell, Batman was practically a supporting character in BATMAN and Robin) for audiences turning on it like they did. If Dark Knight Returns ever gets a proper adaptation as an honest-to-God quality feature film, I’d love to see Clooney take another stab at being an older Bruce Wayne.

    Can you imagine if Batman and Robin WAS a success though, like if the film had been different or if people wanted to see it continue in the more cartoonish direction? Would Clooney have kept at it, doing more films like that? Or would we have been robbed of the last decade and a half of films like Out of Sight, Three Kings, the Ocean’s series, his directorial efforts, etc.? Sure, some of those may have still happened, and maybe they would have still been fine with a different lead actor in the roles…

  • Derek McFarland

    I never considered James Bond movies to be sequels, unless you count the last two (which were more like prequels) To me they were all just James Bond stories, like the movies with the character, Jack Ryan. I think superhero movies should be like that. I mean think how many different movies about Santa Claus there are, and how many of those are not sequels. Rebooting Superhero movies every 5 to 10 years can be frustrating; cause that usually means that you gotta watch the main character become who he’s meant to become….all over again. Don’t reboot….just keep the characters going on different adventures, like Indiana Jones (temple of doom was the second adventure, but took place a couple of years before Raiders of The Lost Arc; which was the first film)

  • Maopheus

    Once there’s been enough cultural absorption of a character’s story and personality, you can make further iterations of stories featuring the character without any need to reintroduce or reboot. Just about everyone knows Batman’s origin, Superman’s origin, James Bond, etc. Like the tagline for the first Daniel Craig Bond movie: You know the name, you know the number. Certain small details might be changed, or embellished on, but in general, there’s no need to rehash. I’d like to see several comic book franchises return to the big screen, but with no need to rehash the origin, especially Fantastic Four. I think it’s more interesting to jump into the middle of things when they are already established in their superhero careers. It could be even the same continuity as the last FF movie, but I’d assume they’d want to recast everyone with the exception of Reed Richards.

  • Maopheus

    Additionally, speaking of Fantastic Four, I think a perfect villain for Iron Man is Doctor Doom. Unfortunately, I think DD is owned by whatever studio put out FF.

  • Bobby Bento

    Paul Rudd would be a good successor, and hes younger but still has the wisecrack knacks.

  • Chris

    There is no way Robert Downey jr can be replaced cause he plays Tony Stark like it was a natural thing to do. If he ever did there would be nothing but bad talk about it.

  • keltari

    If Iron Man 3 is a flop, RDjr will leave. No point in associating his name with a dying franchise. If its a hit, obviously RDjr and the producers will want him to stay. However, RDjr will want a bigger piece of the pie and the question is whether or not the studio will be willing to give it. If I remember correctly, this is what happened with Tobey Maguire. The movie made $2.5 BILLION dollars worldwide and he wanted more money for SpiderMan 4. The studio refused and decided to reboot the film with a new actor.

  • erratyc

    No one complains when an artist leaves a comic and is replaced by someone who draws the character completely differently (well, unless the artist sucks). I’m ALL for replacing the actors and continuing the story. Amazing Spiderman was a good movie, it’s not great but good. The main reason is that I felt like I’d seen this movie a hundred times before. While I’m glad they rebooted in the sense that I don’t really care for the Raimi/Maguire era, I was a little bored watching Parker become Spiderman for the billionth time (counting all of the comics, cartoons and movies I’ve seen about the story). RDJ is great, but no one is irreplaceable

  • Daniel

    I agree Downey is iron man but he is pushing it…. same with paltrow…. i do know that they’ll continue the legacy…. i have some canididties in mind for recast of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts… Why not…. Nathan Fillion, Mark Whilberg, Jeff Goldblum as Tony Stark…… Kirsten Dunest, Beverly Mitchal, Christine Taylor or Camron Diez.

    NO REBOOT NESSARY…… JUST RECAST TONY AND PEPPER IF ROBERT AND GWENYTH BACK OUT ITS THAT SIMPLE….. LONG LIVE IRON MAN/TONY STARK.