"Iron Man" star Robert Downey Jr. to suit up for "Captain America 3"
Plans for an "Iron Man 4" may be headed for the scrapping yard at this point, but Tony Stark will no less have his hands full with The Cap.
Robert Downey Jr. has signed on to reprise his role as the billionaire business magnate Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, in "Captain America 3," according to Variety.
The upcoming installment in Marvel's blockbuster franchise is expected to be based on the "Civil War" series, a crossover storyline which ran from 2006-2007 and pitted some of the comics' best known superheroes against each another.
In the comics, Captain America (played by Chris Evans in the films) and Iron Man duke it out after finding themselves on opposing ends of a civil rights issue, and it seems likely that they will be trading blows in the new film. This marks a far contrast from the previous pair's outing in 2012's "The Avengers," where they were seen as allies.
Up until this point, Downey was only signed on to play Iron Man in the next two "Avengers" films. The 49-year-old actor set off a social media firestorm earlier this week after he indicated that a fourth "Iron Man" film was in deed in the works. He later clarified his statements and squashed any rumors of a sequel during an appearance Tuesday on CBS' "The Late Show with David Letterman."
The three "Iron Man" films have taken in a collective total of $2.425 billion at the global box office. The most recent entry, "Iron Man 3," alone took in $1.215 billion in ticket sales, becoming the second highest grossing film of 2013.
"The Avengers" was the highest grossing film of 2012, with $1.519 billion in global ticket sales.
The Iron Man and Captain America characters will next be seen on screen together when "Avengers: Age of Ultron" opens May 1, 2015.
"Captain America 3" is slated to arrive in theaters on May 6, 2016 -- a release date close enough to the March 25, 2016 premiere of "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice" to draw comparisons between the two superhero match-ups.
Tell us: Are you excited to see Iron Man and Captain America go head to head? Or are they better off working together side by side?