Now remember in Iron Man when Tony Stark's character was so awesome right at the beginning of the film? I remember thinking 'Tony Stark is so cool that there is no way that even him becoming a superhero can make him cooler.' Obviously I was wrong and the film was a fantastic origin story as well as being a brilliant platform for The Avengers and later other Marvel films. Tony Stark was such a breath of fresh air and took us away from all those other generic superhero alter egos. And as much as you comic book nerds (yeah I said the 'n' word) want to say 'Oh well it was Tony Stark from the source material that drove the films.' It was Robert Downey Jr that made that character what he is now.
However playing a character for too long eventually does not benefit anyone except the people making the money: the studio. So many actors continue to play characters for years and years based purely on their pay checks. Take Jack Sparrow for example. The character was interesting and original in the first film, after a slow descent Johnny Depp is no longer playing Jack Sparrow, he is playing a parody of Jack Sparrow. My friends you can take a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. The same can be said here, you can pay an actor to be in a film, you can't make them give a quality performance.
Why is there so much uproar about Downey Jr stepping down? He's getting old and he'll soon not have the heart for it any more. Recasting comic book characters is common place now. How many on-screen Batmans have there been? How many on-screen Batmans are there yet to be? It has been said that Stark is a character like James Bond that can be interchanged between actors. I half agree with that. Stark is a comic book character and I just think that after the third Avengers film they should give it a few years and recast Tony Stark. Remember when everyone considered Jack Nicholson to be the definitive Joker? Then a little film came out called The Dark Knight. All I'm saying is there may, or may not be an actor out there who could match Downey's role or even top him.
I know its totally sacrilegious for me to be saying all this about our beloved Tony Stark, but all I know is, the first time Tony was on screen Downey Jr played him best. I wanted to write this purely because I'm sick of people moaning about Downey Jr stepping down. If you're interested in the subject send me a tweet! I'd like to know opinions on who could replace Downey Jr at some point. My pick is Colin Farrell, imagine that shit!
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