With Robert Downey Jr.'s appearance in Iron Man 3, he has concluded his original Marvel contract. He was to appear five times as Tony Stark, and he did that in the 3 Iron Man movies, The Avengers and a scene in The Incredible Hulk. Now clearly The Avengers 2 will not be the same if Iron Man isn't in it or if someone other then Robert Downey Jr. were to portray him. Actors get recast all the time. Would it be unheard of? No, not by any stretch of the imagination. But most fans would be disappointed to say the least. Reports are Marvel Studios are in strong negotiations with the actor to return for what is said to be at least two more Avengers movies.
I personally would love to be a part of those negotiations to see how much money they would offer him. But what makes Robert Downey Jr. so awesome is that he is standing up for the rest of the cast of Avengers in his negotiations. From what I read, (granted it was on the internet and not everything is real that is reported here) RDJ said he would consider returning to the role if the rest of the cast gets huge pay increases as well. Of everyone in the original cast, RDJ was the only actor to get a cut of the final box office, plus a salary that far exceeded the rest of the cast. If the report I read was correct, he said only if everyone got paid more this time around. It would be so easy for a guy to care just about himself and it would seem that Robert Downey Jr. is the complete opposite.
If you don't believe how awesome of a guy Robert Downey Jr. is just read this article from Buzzfeed.
Now onto my review of Iron Man 3, which I saw a week ago with my fiancée. It was a solid movie. But it did not live up to Avengers or even Iron Man 2. There were things that I really liked about the movie and there were some things that I didn't like about it. My biggest problem with the movie is that Tony Stark spent most of the movie outside of the suit. It was kind of like an Iron Man movie without Iron Man. I felt the same way about Dark Knight Rises though. Maybe it's a third movie in a superhero trilogy thing. The performances themselves were all great as usual. Any time you can add an actor to the level of Ben Kingsley in a supporting role, you have got to take it. Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall were also new to the cast this time around. And you can never go wrong with Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle rounding out the cast as well. I would say the movie was a solid B minus.
A Special Thanks to my beautiful fiancée for being my editor as well!