Rumors persist that actor Robert Downey Jr. may not portray the role of Tony Parker in Marvel’s upcoming movie “Iron Man 4.” Marvel President Kevin Feige stated in late November that he could not envision another actor playing the role, although he also admitted some iconic characters lasted longer than the actors who played them.
In October, Marvel announced its Phase Three lineup in which nine movies would be released, the last would be “Avengers: Infinity War Part 2” in May 2019. Although the studio has not made an announcement of other films beyond May 2019, Movieweb cites fresh speculation from Master Herald that Marvel is developing “Iron Man 4” with a 2019 release date.
Who Is Ty Simpkins?
However, “Iron Man 4” would no longer have Robert Downey Jr. to play Tony Parker. Instead, a 13-year-old actor is reportedly being groomed to replace him. He is Ty Simpkins, the young Harley Keener in “Iron Man 3.” By the time Marvel would produce the movie, Ty Simpkins would be 17 or 18.
One of the issues frequently cited when rumors of another actor playing Tony Parker for “Iron Man 4” is that Robert Downey Jr. would be too old to play the role. Reports said it would be an actor whose age would be between 20 and 30 would likely be the next Tony Parker. Robert Downey Jr., born on April 4, 1965, is now 51 which means in 2019, he would be 54, likely too old for the role of a superhero.
Face Of The Movie Franchise
Looper points out that the “Iron Man” series kickstarted the deluge of comic book movies, and Robert Downey Jr. was the face of the movie franchise from the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008. However, the website believes that the actor has become too expensive to get again to star in “Iron Man 4” based on estimates of millions of dollars paid to him for “Iron Man 1, 2 and 3.”
Phase Three, which would begin with the fight with Thanos, is part of a gradual handoff in which old heroes are phased out and new superheroes phased in. Given this plan, Looper sees Robert Downey Jr. no longer fitting into the mix or the overall strategy of Marvel to have new heroes and retire the old heroes and be part of "Iron Man 4."
