MUMBAI: "Take that suit out, then who are you?"…. "Billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist" remarks Marvel‘s Mr. Stark played by Robert Downey Jr. in Hollywood‘s one of highest grossing movie of the decade, The Avengers. (2012).
After a spread of disappointing rumours questioning Downey donning the Iron Man suit ever again, especially when Downey had hinted in numerous interviews, including a recent segment on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," saying his days of playing Tony Stark are over, ‘Marvellites‘ have now a reason to rejoice as Marvel studios confirms of signing Robert Downey, Jr. to reprise the role of Marvel‘s iconic genius and witty playboy Tony Stark. Tony Stark a.k.a. Robert Downey Jr.‘s famous closing line "I am Iron Man" in the very first Iron Man series sparked life into the studios which raked in over $585 million worldwide and has only doubled over the two sequels grossing over $ 2.2 billion (Iron Man2; Iron Man3) over the last few years.
Marvel asserts that under the two-picture agreement, Downey will star as Tony Stark/Iron Man in Marvel‘s The Avengers 2 and Marvel‘s The Avengers 3. As per reports, The Avengers sequel will be helmed and written by Joss Whedon who has also directed the original grossing over $1.51 billion worldwide. While the script is still being worked upon, The Avengers 2 is set to go into production by March 2014 and open in theatres by 1 May 2015.
Piling the fan‘s curiosity, Marvel on its website also revealed that the sequel would feature new Marvel characters never before seen on the big screen and in the coming days and weeks and months, the studio will reveal additional casting updates, new characters coming to Marvel movies and much more thrilling news quenching the curiosity of its fans. As a promotion gig, Marvel claims to reveal such information from the most secret meetings at Marvel.
Downey is represented at CAA by Bryan Lourd, Jim Toth and Matt Leaf and by his attorneys Tom Hansen and Stewart Brookman of the firm Hansen Jacobson. However after tough negotiations with the penny-pincher studio as previously reported by Deadline, Marvel felt it comfortable to shell out and grab Downey Jr. especially when Downey Jr‘s past two Marvel films, 2012‘s Marvel‘s The Avengers and this year‘s Iron Man 3, rank as two of the top five grossing films of all time, collectively raking in over $2.7 billion worldwide to date.
The agreement figure however remains undisclosed but is speculated to gross in millions as the original had earned him (Downey Jr.) no less than $50 million (speculated).
