Back in the day Jon Favreau apparently had quite the battle to get Robert Downey Jr. into the Iron suit. And while the battle was with studio execs, who believed Downey Jr. was a liability given his addiction problems, Favreau won it in the end, and the rest as they say is history. And while Robert Downey Jr. is signed on for Avengers 2, future Iron Man movies hang in the balance as the star spoke to GQ about an injury he suffered during the filming of Iron Man 3.
"It got me thinking about how big the message from your cosmic sponsor needs to be before you pick it up. How many genre movies can I do? How many follow-ups to a successful follow-up are actually fun? I come from a family of very innovative writers and directors and actors and artists, and the circle of friends they were in were the people I heard having pun-offs playing poker at two in the morning, and it was just the most comforting aspect of my childhood. So there's this kind of legacy of souls from what I consider to be a very particular time in entertainment, and I'm sensing a return to that."
I think to lose Downey Jr. as Tony Stark would be an immense blow to the Marvel universe. He personifies Stark and oozes so much attitude and charisma that the character is completely owned by him. And while you can draw the comparison to Bond from the different actors point of view, none of the past Bond’s including the current one (Daniel Craig) have owned that character with the gusto that Robert Downey Jr. has done with Tony Stark. And while some characters can be played by other actors throughout a franchise’s life, can you really imagine anybody but Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker? Ian McKellen as Gandalf? Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs? And of course Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark!
