That Robert Downey Jr is a coy little diva. For months now he's been playing with fanboys' hearts, suggesting that his charismatic and superheroic Tony Stark will soon be bowing out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the incredibly popular blockbusters franchise he helped launch - from the looks of this morning's news, audiences can all breath a little easier. Not only is he sticking around, but he's going to play a key part in a bunch of upcoming Marvel movies. Starting, rather excitingly, with Captain America 3. The ending (SPOILERS!) of Iron Man 3 seemed to suggest that Tony Stark was done with all this nonsense, as he announced his retirement from do-gooding by proposing to his girlfriend and blowing up all of his wonderful toys. Since then Downey Jr's been insistent that another solo Iron Man film would only happen if Mel Gibson directed it (ie it's not going to happen) and that the next two Avengers movies would fulfil his contract. According to reports this morning, however, he will be returning to play a key role in the follow-up to this summer's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, launching a big new crossover event... According to the word on the street (the internet superhighway), Captain America 3 - and Downey Jr's appearance in such - will launch elements of the comic book crossover Civil War in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Civil War comics saw the metahumans of America being forced to choose sides after a tragic event saw a bunch of kids killed: either register their secret identities with the government and become, essentially, super-soldiers, or else run from the law and end up fighting against former friends. Civil War: Dawn Of Justice, anyone? Downey Jr's been hinting at something "big" coming up in the MCU, with the more hopeful suggesting an Iron Man 4 was actually in the works. From the sounds of it, Captain America 3 could be even bigger than that. Besides the Iron Man star the film already has The Winter Solider directing team of Anthony and Joe Russo on board, a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and, obviously, Chris Evans starring, gearing up for a May 6, 2016 release.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
