Robert Downey Jr Goes Back On His Word; Now Up For Iron Man 4

One of the worst things about the long-lead into major comic book movies is that some things that could be construed as spoilers just become accepted and widely reported

Take, for example, Tony Stark's status at the end of Civil War. For the past few months I'd convinced myself that Marvel was going to take a bold step forward and kill Tony Stark and, while it was definitely an out-there theory believed by myself and maybe one stray reader, I'd like to have been proven wrong in the cinema. Nope! Last week Robert Downey, Jr. signed on for Spider-Man: Homecoming and now he's gone back on previous suggestions (a key part of my theory) and said to ABC News he's up for Iron Man 4: "I feel like I could do one more."

Tony Stark is a great character and Downey, Jr. plays him incredibly well, so it's hard to complain about more Iron Man in the universe he built (and the actor can't be annoyed either, given how ridonkulous his paycheques are), but couldn't they have kept this stuff under wraps for a couple more weeks? Marvel movies already struggle to create tension with their well-known contracts (it was obvious Nick Fury wasn't dead in The Winter Soldier because Samuel L. Jackson had several movies left on his deal), so why add to it?

Eh, whatever. We're probably getting an Iron Man 4. That's pretty awesome, right?