Robert Downey Jr.

There's been a lot of 'Iron Man 4' talk over the past few days as Robert Downey, Jr. continues his whirlwind promotional tour for 'The Judge' across a multitude of talk shows. He's confirmed it, issued demands, backpedaled, confirmed it again and now, via an appearance on David Letterman last night, he clarified all the recent rumors and (we think?) issued the definitive word on 'Iron Man 4' and his future at Marvel.

First, the good news: Robert Downey, Jr. has agreed to star in 'Iron Man 4' for Marvel! Considering everything he has been saying over the past year or so - essentially that he can't imagine an 'Iron Man 4' ever happening - that's a major step in the right direction and a huge win for Marvel Studios. But...Downey's agreement has come with one rather large condition. That his old friend, and current member of the Hollywood blacklist, Mel Gibson be allowed to direct.

Marvel Studios and the character of Tony Stark/Iron Man transformed Robert Downey Jr. from a has-been into one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, so it's not surprising that he'll sing their praises outside the context of the movies he stars in. However, he recently took it a big step further, declaring 'Guardians of the Galaxy' to be the best Marvel movie yet. Yep, even the ones that he's not in.

It's inevitable: one day there will be an 'Avengers' reboot. It's hard to think of now, as 'Avengers 2' hasn't even hit theaters and Phase 3 of Marvel's Cinematic Universe hasn't even begun yet. But, once Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner all play through their contracts, Marvel is going to have to start over. Now, we don't think Marvel would ever reboot 'The Avengers' as a 70s detective TV series, but if they did? It'd look a lot like this...

At San Diego's Comic Con 2012, they held a costume contest for Iron Man which featured several cute kids (I'm guessing their cute) dressed up like Iron Man. That's when Robert Downey Jr. arrived.