Is It Really the End of the Iron Age for Marvel Movies?

[MovieBob]

Is It Really the End of the Iron Age for Marvel Movies?

Robert Downey Jr. may be leaving the Marvel universe, but is that really the end of Iron Man?

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[gorfias]

I wonder if Downey signed a contract stating no one else can play Stark? If not, that is what I'd like: a new actor playing the character.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

BUT I DON'T LIKE CHANGE!

In all seriousness, I don't like the idea of Downey not being Tony Stark anymore. Iron Man trilogy had a good conclusion and we don't need any more of those movies. Marvel should just keep the guy alive throughout The Avengers 2 and The Avengers 3. Let him retire or something. I just hate the idea of Tony Stark dying.

 

[Trishbot]

They've already said they view Iron Man like they view James Bond...

While many people swear by Sean Connery, they ultimately did move on to another actor and the series continued to this very day.

However, what I would do is this:

Just have Robert Downey Jr. do the voice, have a stunt man/CGI the suit where needed, film a few shots of him in the visor (or not), and have him swing by for glorified cameos to rapturous applause while one of the many other worthy Avengers gets a more central focus.

RDJ wouldn't have to commit to big stretches of time or a massive paycheck from Marvel, he still shows up, his "suit" could still do a lot of heavy lifting (pretty sure RDJ himself wasn't flying around in Avengers most of the time as Iron Man)...

Yeah, RDJ is great, but Marvel is a big world and movies like The Winter Soldier have proven they can even be better than Iron Man movies.

 

[Lightknight]

As far as I'm concerned, Gwyneth Paltrow doesn't get enough credit for how much she brings to the Iron Man movies and the first Avengers as Pepper Potts. She takes what should be a thankless role (Tony Stark's stern but nurturing girlfriend) and makes it into a slyly funny counterpoint to Boys' Club of oddities around her. We've already seen her wear and use Tony's armor in Iron Man 3, so why not let her inherit the mantle? If nothing else, it'd be highly talked-about.

She is utterly interchangeable. Sorry, but I strongly disagree with her as having brought anything to the table that a laundry list of other fine actresses couldn't have brought.

The reason why we like Downey Jr as Stark is the brand of snark he brings to the table. Pepper Pots would be something entirely different. Not Iron Man.

Now, tough girls that could do it instead of Pepper? I'd have to think. But it is interesting how every movie you review lately has some sort of "under-appreciated woman that should be the lead" in it.

You know what movie with a female lead I could go for? A movie with Sif in it instead of Thor. That'd be great.

 

[Angelous Wang]

That's to be expected, actually: Downey is already the highest paid actor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and once he's checked the final two boxes on his original multi-film contract (largely expected to include Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers 3) they'd need to negotiate a new one -- with the superstar actor now in a position to demand a lot more money for his work.

Plus, with Guardians of the Galaxy -- featuring a cast of characters even more unknown to mainstream audiences than Iron Man was before his first movie -- having toppled Tony Stark as the studio's biggest (non-Avengers) debut feature, it's probable that Marvel is feeling more confident than ever that they (as in "The Marvel Brand") have become a bigger draw than any one actor.

I kind of feel these point counter each other a bit.

Downey made something like 35 mil off of his current contract, and they made like 2 billion from the 3 Iron Man movies alone. Plus you've Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers and Thor and Cap all making hundreds of millions-billions.

So even if Downey is demanding a a crazy amount of money, at this point in time Marvel can probably pay it without too much trouble.

 

[shiajun]

Maybe it could work with the Avengers being the same but the actors changing. Didn't Marvel just up and passed on the "Thor" mantle to a woman in the comics? Chris Evans is also kind of done with movies in general, and the Captain America arc in the Winter Soldier already set up the stage for

Spoiler

a possible departure of Steve Rogers, with Bucky shifting from being Winter Soldier into the new Captain America, as in the comics

Iron Man, the icon, changing hands could also happen and stay in line with both the movies' arcs and some of the comic storylines.

That's my take, anyway.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Ironman 1 was good, 2 and 3 were crap. I like the character and Downey plays him, just that he needs another good movie. I think it would be better to have another actor or just have it as a AI controlled with another actor playing as butler. No idea. Im sure all of us who moan will get over it, look at Batman and every other actor that has played him. Every one moaned yet the money keeps rolling in.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

I like all of the ideas!
Best one is probably Iron Patriot, as that was a great comic arc.

But Palthrow I also adore as Potts.
Cheadle would be great for trumpeting making a non-white guy a big part of the team (and their marketing would milk that fact out forever, same as with Palthrow being a woman_.

 

[Lightknight]

I like all of the ideas!
Best one is probably Iron Patriot, as that was a great comic arc.

But Palthrow I also adore as Potts.
Cheadle would be great for trumpeting making a non-white guy a big part of the team (and their marketing would milk that fact out forever, same as with Palthrow being a woman_.

So... you vote for Cheadle because racism and Palthrow because sexism? Tokenism seems like a good idea but it's just marking off a checkbox on a checklist. What we need are legitimate female and minority heroes that make sense as the big team. The Falcon is a damn cool option and I've already expressed my interest for Sif as an Avenger before. But manipulating the demographic by changing existing characters for the sake of forcing it would be a problem.

Picking people based on Race or Gender is just as wrong as not picking someone based on Race or Gender. That's because the act of picking a person is the act of not picking other people based on their respective race or gender. We've got to get past this guilt that in a country where the VAST majority of Americans are white that we see a lot of white leads. Oh no, the most common demographic is the most represented *shocked*. I would love to see other characters fleshed out, again, especially black characters like the Falcon (who I thought was perfect) or female characters like Sif. But just outright replacing white male with black or female because of inherently sexist/racist ideals is wrong.

A warmachine movie would be fine. I don't think Cheadle can carry it, and I love me some Cheadle, unless they seriously flesh out his character. The truth is, Stark's character absolutely stole every scene he was in.

An Ironman movie just wouldn't be the same without his roguish characteristics and snark. Drunk playboy? That's textbook Stark.

Now, can Downey be replaced? Absolutely. But the character has to those characteristics and not just Potts or Warmachine instead. Not in an Ironman movie. That's an emphasis on the character of Ironman and not the man section.

If anyone, minority or majority, male or female, can bring something cool to the table and stay true to Ironman then have at it. But the two examples listed are not that person. For example, Samuel L Jackson owned his role as Nick Fury. Holy crap is he great for that role. Couldn't care less of Nick Fury wasn't white. I mean, honestly, Will Smith in Hancock was pretty damn good. He may have it in him to own the IronMan role and give it the respect the ironman spirit deserves. Don't know.

But it has to make sense to make those kinds of major changes and should never be a racist/sexist decision that you (royal you, not you the poster I'm responding to) think one race is a better choice than another or one sex is a better choice than another without reason. Especially if it's an established character. Racism hiding behind the guise of equality is still just that, racism. Remember, equality is fair representation, not elevation of a smaller group to have equal representation as a larger group. We should all get one vote, one voice, and nothing more or less. My vote should not be watered down to less than one just because I was born a certain color or gender and your vote should not be concentrated just because you were born a certain color or gender. That's not equality.

 

[youji itami]

James "Rhodey" Rhodes isn't he only in Avengers 2 to be killed off too show that Ultron is an actual threat at least that's what the leaked scripts all say.

And Falcon dies in Captain America 3 already confirmed as after the Black Panther film comes out Marvel do not need 3 token blacks.


The above post is sarcasm but I would not be surprised to see it happen because USA film industry.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Robert Downey Jr. could easily be replaced, just find somebody that looks, speaks, and acts like him and slot the guy in. If they put enough effort into it could even be done seamlessly.

 

[shirkbot]

Look, if we're going to lose Robert Downey Jr. can we at least do it in some kind of novel way? Let's just make Black Widow the new Iron Man. I know it's a screwball route, but at least it would defeat some expectations, and could set up some interesting play between her and the archer guy. He could become envious that she suddenly gets to play with the big boys directly while he still has to hang out on the periphery before defecting to whatever the villain flavor of the day is... This is why I don't write stories...

 

[vid87]

Justin Hammer sounds like the kind of narcissistic dweezle who would name an outfit HAMMER ("Time for rebranding! No more 'Industries' or 'Incorporated', just make it 'HAMMER.' We're in the 21st century - everything's 10 letters long or less!") Hell, considering SHIELD just imploded and that it's public knowledge, this would be a magnificent send-up of public vs. private sector vacuum filling - former villains (if there any left or they're introduced here) are conscripted as sentence-reducing civil servants in the "New" Avengers public security contract program. I don't know exactly how it would work considering he's a felon as of Iron Man 2, but if they can work around that - bribery, forgetful public (also a send-up: casual Marvel audiences probably don't remember who the hell this guy is), aggressive PR - it's a great set-up.

 

[tzimize]

As far as I'm concerned, Gwyneth Paltrow doesn't get enough credit for how much she brings to the Iron Man movies and the first Avengers as Pepper Potts. She takes what should be a thankless role (Tony Stark's stern but nurturing girlfriend) and makes it into a slyly funny counterpoint to Boys' Club of oddities around her. We've already seen her wear and use Tony's armor in Iron Man 3, so why not let her inherit the mantle? If nothing else, it'd be highly talked-about.

She is utterly interchangeable. Sorry, but I strongly disagree with her as having brought anything to the table that a laundry list of other fine actresses couldn't have brought.

The reason why we like Downey Jr as Stark is the brand of snark he brings to the table. Pepper Pots would be something entirely different. Not Iron Man.

Now, tough girls that could do it instead of Pepper? I'd have to think. But it is interesting how every movie you review lately has some sort of "under-appreciated woman that should be the lead" in it.

You know what movie with a female lead I could go for? A movie with Sif in it instead of Thor. That'd be great.

I'll have to massively disagree with you here. While I'm not a huge fan of Paltrow regularly I think she does an outstanding job as Pepper Potts. She has the whole register and is probably one of the best romantic fits for a character I have ever seen. It takes a lot of balls to handle Tonys Iron Man 1 personality but she is a champion. The way she handles that reporter he bangs is just....awesome. And she grows with the role, from secretary to boss to something of a hero in Iron Man 3. She is NOT just a pair of boobs and actually gets some stuff to do besides looking good. I adore her.

She is beautiful, funny and smart. And she doesnt take Tonys crap. Their chemistry is 10/10 to me.

Its easy to say that another actress could do her job....but really, no one could. They would do a different job. Maybe better (though I doubt it) maybe worse, but definitely different. The same can be said about Downey. I cant think of anyone that could take his place, but I'm sure there is someone. In the end it doesnt matter. His casting is PERFECT, and so is Paltrovs.

My 2?.

 

[hermes]

Of all the options, I think only Rhodes would work. Give him enough screen time in Avengers 2, make him a more fleshed out character than just being an Ironman-lookalike, then you can kill Robert Downey Jr to up the ante, so that they have a new motive to "avenge" someone.

But, if they were planing to do that, I think we should have started noticing stuff by now. Like how the animated series started focusing more on Falcon before we even knew he was in Captain America 2. If they give War Machine or Rescue their own comic book, it would be red flags with Marvel trying to create public awareness of the characters.

Right now, I think the most likely scenario is for Marvel to pay Robert Downey whatever for some small presence in the upcoming movies. Good thing about Iron Man is, he could only appear as CGI with a voiceover performance and no one would be the wiser...

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

I can see them handing the suit off to Rhodes, but not Potts; Marvel hasn't shown themselves to be that daring in regards to casting, and Paltrow isn't that strong an actor to fill Downey's shoes. If they let it lie for a bit after the Avengers trilogy, they can set up a movie based around some new hero[footnote]no idea who; Ant-Man is the only liil fighting a villain who has stolen/remade the Iron Man suits, and have a secondary character take control of the suits at the end. That way they can bolster a new character with "He/She fights Iron Man!" for their first outing, and sneak in a new Iron Man in a way that's palatable to audiences.

 

[Opellulo]

One of the most disappointing decisions in the MCU so far was stripping Pepper of her extremis powers at the end of Iron Man 3.

Since they already estabilished that they can be controlled they missed the opportunity to create a brand new strong female superhero that had both an interesting story and an awesome performer.

Back on topic i think neither option will be used; they are going to cast a new actor as Tony stark and go on like nothing happened; Marvel characters are just little more than archetipes, switching actors will not be a problem.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Of all the options, I think only Rhodes would work. Give him enough screen time in Avengers 2, make him a more fleshed out character than just being an Ironman-lookalike, then you can kill Robert Downey Jr to up the ante, so that they have a new motive to "avenge" someone.

But, if they were planing to do that, I think we should have started noticing stuff by now. Like how the animated series started focusing more on Falcon before we even knew he was in Captain America 2. If they give War Machine or Rescue their own comic book, it would be red flags with Marvel trying to create public awareness of the characters.

Right now, I think the most likely scenario is for Marvel to pay Robert Downey whatever for some small presence in the upcoming movies. Good thing about Iron Man is, he could only appear as CGI with a voiceover performance and no one would be the wiser...

Rhodey already has his own series, but not as War Machine. In the comics, he's going by Iron Patriot. Has been since, well, Iron Man 3.

 

[Brennan]

One of the most disappointing decisions in the MCU so far was stripping Pepper of her extremis powers at the end of Iron Man 3.

Since they already estabilished that they can be controlled they missed the opportunity to create a brand new strong female superhero that had both an interesting story and an awesome performer.

This. She was awesome. And then they have Tony be all "yeah, and I totes cured Pepper" in a voiceover like it was nothing. Urg. If you could have him cure it that offhandedly, you could have him stabilize it just as easily/plausibly so she could keep her metahuman badassery. So much needlessly wasted potential right there. It's almost plays like Marvel was scared of the idea: "...And that's the end...OhandPepperdoesn'tgettokeepherpowersWHEWthnxbai".

Even from an icongraphy standpoint:
A redhead.
Named "Pepper".
With heat-related superpowers.

How could they ignore that?

On topic, If they have to loose RDJ, I'd rather see Tony Stark rotated to the background rather than recast. Have him either retire Iron Man (which would be totally natural given his Avengers/IM3 character arc), and just have him show up in cameos now and again as the Avenger's Lucius Fox equivalent. Rotate a new hero into to the empty slot on the team. A rotating roster would IMO be a much more natural way of handling the film continuity Avengers than a ballooning roster.