Robert Downey Jr. Says Marvel Has No Plans for Iron Man 4 Yet

Robert Downey Jr. has played Tony Stark in several movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the latest of which was Iron Man 3 last year. We know he's back for The Avengers: Age of Ultron next year, but will the actor appear in another solo movie?

Downey's contract with Marvel Studios locks him into one more Avengers movie in the future, but it says nothing about another solo film. The actor spoke to Variety and confirmed that Marvel has no plans in place for a fourth installment. "There isn't one in the pipe," he said. "No, there's no plan for a fourth Iron Man."

Variety then asked Downey if he would let anyone take over the role of Tony Stark. "I like that the idea is that it would be up to me, like I'm casting director for Marvel," he replied. Downey's co-star in The Judge, Robert Duvall, chimed in with "don't give it to anybody else."

Downey recently spoke to USA Today, which asked him about the possibility of a solo adventure for Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow. "Doesn't Scarlett deserve a break?" the actor said with a laugh. He also pointed out Johansson's new motherhood.

"Look, I think that the interesting thing particularly after [Guardians of the Galaxy] with Zoe [Saldana], even from the first Iron Man where Pepper was kind of this really - to me the Iron Man franchise would never have taken off without [Gwyneth] Paltrow," he continued. "There's something about her that grounded the story. She's not your typical lady in a superhero movie, and then by Iron Man 3 she's swallowing serums and putting on suits and kicking [butt] and all that stuff. It would be kind of more appropriate for a character that already was like a Black Widow [to lead a movie]. It just seems like whatever Scarlett does people want to go see it."

Do you think RDJ will be in Iron Man 4? Will there even be an Iron Man 4? Let us know in the comments section.