I heard a review/commentary of the Iron Man movie recently which raised a point which, in all reality, is entirely invalid. It went like this:
“Sam Jackson as Nick Fury said they didn’t want Tony Stark as Iron Man in the Avengers program, therefore Robert Downey won’t be Iron Man in the Avengers movie.”
The logic is sound up until you realize that it’s a movie and the author of one movie isn’t the author of another. I’m going to look at just a few reasons why I think Downey will be in the Iron Man armour in the upcoming Avengers film.
#1 – Who else would it be in the armour? Marvel is putting a lot of time and effort into these Avengers related movies. They’re building it up slowly so that everything is in place in their new live-action film universe. Fury has spoken to Stark who has spoken to Banner who’ll probably punch Thor in the face or something. The Captain America movie comes out before the Avengers movie, and Joss Whedon has his hands in both of those mvies, which means it’s possible that there will be a direct linkage between the two movies (check out
my full theory here). Marvel is trying to stay pretty close to the comics.
So why would Iron Man all of a sudden not be Tony Stark?
Additionally, who else can get in the armour? Rhodey? You’ve only got so much budget for big name actors, and I’ll guarantee you that Don Cheadle isn’t going to be suiting up for the Avengers as they go off to rescue Captain America from his deep freeze.
#2 – It’s a great story device to have Tony “save the day”. We’ve already seen Fury tell Stark that they don’t want him for the Avengers program. So how ever can they step back on what they said?
Oh heavens, how many ways can’t they?
Here’s just one. Something happens to the Avengers team – minus Stark – and maybe even with some newbie in an Iron suit. Stark is monitoring, of course, maybe even in his advisor roll from the helicarrier. Then something goes wrong, Stark disobeys Fury and jumps in to save the day!
It’s also a way to carry the story for awhile, because I think it might be hard for Whedon to just “Avengers Assemble” it at the very beginning of the movie.
#3 – Marvel won’t waste the Iron Man movies. I said it above, and I’ll say it again: Marvel is putting a lot of time and effort into these Avengers movies. Why would they all of a sudden just drop Iron Man off the side of the Earth? They’ve spent a lot of time showcasing Tony Stark as a rich playboy who cares and is a hero, and then they’re going to just not use him?
Got more reasons why Tony Stark will suit up as Iron Man for the Avengers movie? Use the comments below to share them with all of us. Or, conversely, tell me I’m wrong! You like flaming me, so get to it!