The rumors about Robert Downey Jr. dropping out of the production of “Iron Man 4” have been going around for a while, but we never really got any official news. And while the situation is still far from clear, we’ve been hearing these rumors more and more often in the last few weeks.
It’s possible that the new film in the franchise will arrive with some serious changes to the configuration, including a new character in the main role. So far, we’ve been hearing various mixed rumors about who that could be, but Riri Williams has been mentioned several times recently, so it looks like she might have gotten the role in the end.
Of course, if that’s true, the actress obviously won’t play the character of Iron Man, and the producers will have to find a replacement for the protagonist. We’ve been hearing various rumors about what they could have gone with, including the obvious “Iron Woman”, as well as the surprisingly controversial “Iron Heart”.
There have been some claims that the last name is exactly what the producers of the film have settled on, and this has apparently generated some negative responses among fans. The precise reason seems to be the existence of a popular pornographic site with the same name, but it’s worth remembering that the character’s name isn’t final yet.
Fans and critics expect the producers to reveal some more information about the film soon, as events in it are likely going to be directly affected by “Captain America: Civil War 2”. With that in mind, it wouldn’t make much sense to keep any new developments a secret once the other film starts revealing some information about the characters.
As for Robert Downey Jr., the situation around the actor remains a bit strange. He previously reportedly expressed interest in taking part in the sequel, so it seems unusual that he would reject the proposal in the end. Many rumors seem to indicate that money has been the root of the problem, and if that’s true we don’t really expect to see any resolution in the end.
It would be a bit strange if that’s actually the case for many reasons, however. On one hand, Robert Downey Jr. should know his value on the market quite well by this point, and so should the producers of the film. On the other, they should also be well aware of the importance of the actor’s role in the franchise, making it a strange decision to allow him to be removed from the equation so easily.
Unless, of course, there are even more issues behind the scenes that we aren’t aware of, which seems to be the main theory among some fans at the moment. If that’s true though, we don’t expect Robert Downey Jr. nor the studio to make any comments on the situation. In fact, they will most probably try to spin the story in a different direction for the sake of positive publicity, and to avoid tarnishing the name of the franchise.
This should all be sorted out by the time the film is ready to come out, obviously, and right now it looks like this will happen in 2019. This is not confirmed yet, but many see it as the most likely timeframe for its release, all things considered. Marvel seem to have a very specific schedule in mind for their films lately, and they’re releasing them in a system that allows them to support each other, which is a clever move from the studio.