As you most likely know, Iron Man took just shy of $200 million worldwide when it opened last week. Following the mighty bow, EW spoke with director Jon Favreau about the success and also, naturally, asked him about the plans for Iron Man 2, which has already been confirmed for release on April 30, 2010. Unusually, it seems that while Robert Downey Jr is contracted to return as the man in the Iron mask, it's not quite definite that Favreau will direct.
"We've been speaking informally about it, and in concept we would all love to work together again," Favreau said when asked if he'd be involved with the sequel. "But I found out about the announcement last night, so it's not something that — we would definitely love to collaborate more with the sequel. There's no formal arrangement yet, but in theory we would all love to see it happen.... There's definitely a lot of ideas that we all have now. This type of movie is based on serialized materials, so it lends itself very easily to [many different sequel possibilities]. There's definitely a level of enthusiasm from myself and the cast to tell more stories."
Now, that sounds to us like he's pretty certain to direct the sequel, but is just not signed up to do it yet. It would be bizarre for Marvel not to ask him back, since he did a fine job on the first one, particularly with the character work, and it, crucially, made an absolute fortune. But until all the contract details have been ironed out it probably be unwise of him to say that's it's definitely his next gig.
Interestingly, elsewhere in the interview Favreau says that he sees the upcoming Avengers movie – out in July 2011 – as being a third in the Iron Man series. "It's very difficult to keep these franchises from running out of gas after two [movies]," he says. "The high point seems to be the second one, judging by history: If you just look at the consensus in the reviews, you see that X-Men 2 and Spider-Man 2 are sort of seen by the fans as the sort of high point of both franchises, though I don't necessarily agree with that. But to be able to fold it into an Avengers is something you just couldn't do in another studio, and I think what Marvel is about is stuff you can't do at a bigger studio." Read more of the interview here.
Whether that means he'd like Iron Man to bow out after that movie is not completely clear. Of course, it won't be his choice since Iron Man is Marvel property, but he has a very good point about there being no third superhero films that compare favourably to the two before.
We certainly don't envy the scriptwriter of the Avengers movie. Let's assume that Hulk, Thor and Captain America turn out to be hits. That gives you at least four characters that you've got to deliver satisfying stories for in one movie. The potential is, of course, enormous, but that's a hell of a writing challenge. And bringing together characters defined by, presumably, four different directors with four different visions? It makes our heads hurt just to think about it.