Robert Downey Jr. has been doing the press rounds for his new movie, “The Judge,” an adult drama he urged his Twitter followers to go out and see, so the adult drama doesn’t go the way of the dodo bird. Unfortunately, the box-office results weren’t overly impressive this weekend. Is that because audiences would rather see RDJ as “Iron Man” or was “The Judge” and its so-so reviews the deciding factor? Regardless, when doing any sort of press, Downey Jr. is pressed about “Iron Man” and The Telegraph did just that during their interview.
Does Marvel have plans for “Iron Man 4” they asked? It’s something that’s been on the minds of the media a lot lately, and something that Downey Jr. has given various answers to over the last few weeks. “Not that I’m aware of,” he said. Does that mean “Iron Man” is no more? “Not that I’m aware of,” he responded again. So what is the future of Tony Stark? Just appearances in ‘Avengers’ movies?
“ ‘Avengers’ was another opportunity, but they’re not talking about ‘Iron Man 4,’" he said of his Marvel bosses. Downey Jr. also implied that he’s not fully aware of Marvel’s future plans. “I was kind of bombed out to tell the truth, but maybe they’ve got bigger fish to fry and I trust their overall vision. The funny thing about these genre movies is you’d think they were national secrets.”
Asked about other superhero universes out there, Downey said that overall audience fatigue may be setting it. “Honestly, the whole thing is just showing the beginning signs of fraying around the edges,” he answered. “It’s a little bit old… Last summer there were five or seven different [superhero films] out. I feel that they are critiqued by a different metric to any other movie. Right, [that metric is box office], but also they are more forgiven because they operate on a different frequency. It’s like a bunch of really good dancers and you’re looking for the one who keeps changing her leg warmers. They make a lot of money.”
Too cynical? Just caught in a bad mood? In a separate interview with Social Chicago TV (via ComicBookMovie), RDJ didn’t suggest the next big Marvel film would be tired. “This new ‘Avengers’ may well be the best Marvel movie, and by the way that’s saying a lot, because I thought ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ was great,” he said. “And ‘Iron Man 3’ turned out great, and ‘Cap 2’ was awesome. And they’ll be some surprises in the next little while too.”
This isn’t the first time in the last two weeks that the actor has suggested Marvel has some new surprises up their sleeves. Does he mean over the course of their next few films? Does he mean for “Iron Man” and Tony Stark as he intimated last week? Time will tell. Meanwhile, some 40 comic book super hero movies will be hitting between now and 2020. Will you be getting tired, or are we in a super hero movie golden age? Discuss.