Robert Downey Jr. has been making the rounds to promote Spider-Man: Homecoming — also known as Iron Man: Homecoming (With Spider-Man) — opening July 7th (our review here). In an interview with News Limited published Monday, Downey spoke about Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, director Jon Watts, and why the movie felt like a homecoming (and not just because he was working with Iron Man‘s Jon Favreau again), but the most interesting part came near the end. Buried deep into the interview, Downey talked about when he’ll retire from playing Iron Man.
He’s also wary of outstaying his welcome. He empathises with the idea of superhero blockbuster fatigue and with no plans in place for an Iron Man 4 — and rumours that Stark might meet his maker in one of the two coming Avengers films — says he will only stick around as long as he is needed and as long as he’s engaged. […] “I could have said when the first Avengers came out: ‘It’s never going to get any better than that. Everybody stop’.”
He went on to say, “I just never want to blow it for the last six or seven [Marvel movies] I have done by dropping the ball because I decided to go do it one more time. I just want to hang up my jersey before it’s embarrassing.”
In other words, don’t expect Downey to bow out until either he gets offered a project that seems doomed to fail or Marvel fires him. Considering how much money Marvel has made partly with his help (15 movies total — not all including Downey — with more than $15 billion in box office returns), they should probably keep him around as long as they can. Even if he is banking a huge chunk of that money: a rumored $80 million plus backend pay for Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, and a rumored $75 million for Iron Man 3, and an especially questionable rumor about $200 million for both Avengers: Infinity War movies. Yeah, he’ll probably stick around for awhile longer…
(Via News Limited)