Is Robert Downey Jr. Hanging Up the “Iron Man” Suit?

Buena Vista(NEW YORK) — He’s arguably the most popular actor and one of the biggest box office draws in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Robert Downey Jr. might not appear in a fourth Iron Man film.

Legions of fans, including Ol’ Shellhead’s co-creator Stan Lee, feel Downey is the perfect embodiment of billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist Tony Stark — the armored hero’s alter-ego — but the actor told Variety over the weekend that a fourth go-round at this point is not in the cards.

“There isn’t one in the pipe,” the actor said at a press event at the Toronto Film Festival, at which his drama The Judge screened. “No, there’s no plan for a fourth Iron Man.”

When asked if he’d “let” someone else wear the suit, Downey laughed, saying, “I like that the idea is that it would be up to me, like I’m casting director for Marvel.” His Judge co-star Robert Duvall chimed in, “Don’t give it to anybody else.”

Iron Man 3 was a global blockbuster, earning 1.3 billion dollars for Marvel Studios, which is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

All told, the Iron Man trilogy not only put once-troubled Downey back on the map, but generated $2.4 billion in theaters — and made Downey the highest-paid actor in the world, with an estimated take-home between 2013 and 2014 at $75 million, factoring in his hard-fought, reported $50 million profit sharing deal for The Avengers.

It should be noted that Downey will appear as Tony Stark/Iron Man in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and in the blockbuster series’ third installment in 2018.

It’s also very possible that Downey’s statement is an opening salvo in what will be a new round of tough negotiations with Marvel.

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