Iron Man is Forever. Robert Downey Jr. Isn’t

For The Verge, Ross Miller writes:

After weeks of back and forth, will he or won’t he, Marvel finally announced Robert Downey Jr.‘s next appearance as Tony Stark / Iron Man, playing counterpoint to Chris Evans’ Steve Roger in the NSA-fueled Captain America 3.

But the most interesting part of the announcement is this behind-the-scenes blurb from Variety:

Originally, Marvel wanted to hire Downey for a small role, which would have required just three weeks of work. But Downey wanted Stark to have a more substantial role in the film’s plot, which would give him more screen time and naturally a bigger payday. This angered Marvel Entertainment chief Ike Perlmutter, who ordered the screenwriters to write Iron Man out of the script entirely, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

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Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark. Tony Stark, likewise, is Robert Downey Jr. (with a dash of Elon Musk). There’s no point arguing otherwise; so much of Stark the character feels like an extension of Downey’s own. Marvel Studios has merged the two personalities into one inextricably linked entity, which is why Marvel is more likely to write the character out completely rather than recasting. Read the rest of this entry »