'Iron Man 4' Release May 2016, Cast Mark Wahlberg to Replace Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark? 

Iron Man 3 just released earlier this year (May 3) and was again a huge success, but talks of Iron Man 4 and the future of Robert Downey Jr. who has played Tony Stark (Iron Man) in the first three movies could be in question. 

According to Ironman4.net, Disney has set a date for what people believe will be the movie Iron Man 4 for May 6, 2016. 

Many fans are very loyal to Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark and do not like the thought of someone else being cast in future movies. However the people in charge of the Iron Man franchise see it as inevitable because they see Iron Man becoming as iconic as Superman or Batman. 

Kevin Feige, Marvel's President of Production, spoke with Collider recently and he said this about the Iron Man franchise future, "I've said it before and it wasn't negotiating tactics. I believe Tony Stark is as strong a character as Batman. We're about to head into our fifth or sixth Batman--however, you wanna look at it--James Bond, etc. So, there will absolutely be future Tony Starks and future Iron Mans. Who makes those movies, and when those movies are made, who knows? I don't know. But, the notion with Robert's contract in The Avengers 2 & 3, is to allow new characters. Part of what we love about The Avengers is the shifting roster. That's what's fun about the comic book movies. You shift them up. So, certainly that was a lot of the thought process that went into it."

Mark Wahlberg has been speculated for months as a people to take over the role from Robert Downey Jr. He has shown strong interest, clearly making his thoughts known on the issue saying, "I would like to take over the Iron Man franchise for Robert Downey. [But] it's one of those things where I kind of like playing real people, [so] I've never been asked."

Robert Downey Jr. has made no commitment to be apart of future Iron Man films and has expressed interest in spending time focusing on new projects. Since the first Iron Man movie released in 2008, the three movies have brought in a staggering $2.5 billion globally.