Iron Man is not going to die in the next movie. Not only will he appear in Avengers 2, he’ll emerge from the final credits and give Robert Downey Jr the opportunity to trot him out once, twice or several times more. Then again, if RDJ decides he’s got more than enough money in the bank and there are better opportunities elsewhere, the series can end here and now without any awkwardness. At least that’s the message to take away from beloved screenwriter Shane Black’s newest interview in a French language magazine.
The scribe, who was hired to assist British author Drew Pearce, gave fans a whole lot of information between the lines of his vagueness during the interview with Premiere, and luckily for us, the fine folks over at Empire were able to hammer out a translation. You can take a look at one of the quotes below…
“I have the feeling that the story that we have developed for Iron Man 3 actually concluded a trilogy, while leaving the door open to a fourth. I had a lot of discussions on this subject: 'Is that it is the last Iron Man for Robert?' Something tells me that it will not be the case, and will be seen in a fourth, or fifth... But I can be a little excited.”
There are films that really hard sell sequels by rapidly changing directions during the last scene or two in order to tease where the action might go if the box office offers the chance. There are other movies which conclusively shut a door and offer a clearly defined end point. It sounds like Iron Man 3 will play it safe by falling somewhere in the middle. That’s probably the smart way to do it, but if Iron Man 3 does prove to be the end, Black and company are going to look back and wish they let Stark go out in one over the top and snarky jet propulsion of glory. After all, it's not like The Avengers 2 wouldn't make money if it started with Stark's funeral.
