In 2014, Robert Downey Jr. shocked the world by suggesting that Marvel wouldn’t make another Iron Man movie, even though the previous three made a bunch of money and were, like, 70 percent good overall. A few months later, Downey took a page from Loki’s book of evil schemes and just started spreading chaos among talk shows, telling Ellen DeGeneres that Iron Man 4 would happen and then telling David Letterman that it would not. This left many Marvel fans wondering not only if there would be another Iron Man movie, but also if lovable rogue Robert Downey Jr. could be trusted at all.
Perhaps reinvigorated by getting his metal ass kicked by Chris Evans in Captain America:Civil War, though, Downey has now made a bold and surprising declaration about his future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In a presumably hard-hitting Nightline special (via ComicBook.com), Downey revealed that he feels like he “could do one more” Iron Man movie. This was clearly a big decision for Downey, who probably endured a lot of sleepless nights where he pondered what his future would be like if he chose to play Tony Stark for an ninth time (if you count his Incredible Hulk cameo and the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming).
Would he continue to get positive attention from fans? Would they keep making action figures and Lego guys that look like him? Would he still get paid millions of dollars just to put on a nice suit, say a few quips, and then record some footage of his face inside the helmet? It was only after he had determined that the answer to each of those questions was “yes, obviously” that his path became clear. Now it’s just a matter of Marvel actually agreeing to make another Iron Man movie, which should be a similarly difficult decision to make on that end.