Robert Downey Jr may be Marvel's top man, after starring in the mega money-making Iron Man and Avengers franchises, but he reckons the studio's best movie is their recent smash hit Guardians of the Galaxy, in which there is no mention of Tony Stark...
RDJ has been a huge part of the Marvel family since the first Iron Man movie hit cinemas in 2008, since then he's gone on to star in two further Tony Stark adventures as well as the first Avengers movie, oh and he's back in Avengers: Age of Ultron, which lands next year. Throw in his $100 million contract, and one could forgive Rob for having a pretty big ego when it comes to his status with the studio.
But it turns out the actor is pretty gracious when it comes to giving others credit. In a chat with the Toronto Sun, he sets aside Iron Man to declare: "[Guardians of the] Galaxy in some ways is the best Marvel movie ever. … And it's odd for someone with — on occasion — an ego the size of mine to actually say that!"
Elaborating on his point, Rob explains of Marvel's decision to focus on lesser known characters in Guardians: "We're talking about how the Iron Mans and the Thors and the Captain Americas and the Avengers movies have afforded Marvel the opportunity to essentially take what was a third-tier, minor, kind of upstart bit of potential from one of their comic books series and say: 'Look!' It's like you have a great quarterback, and his brother plays for another team, and then you say: 'Look, this is their second cousin and we think he has a great arm and he should start.' And then he goes and wins the Superbowl!"
Robert is a huge Guardians of the Galaxy fan
Robert might take back his kind words though when he hears what Guardians star Chris Pratt had to say about Iron Man during the press rounds for his movie last month. When asked which Avenger he would like to see the Guardians go to battle with, Chris immediately told EntertainmentWise and others at the London press conference: "I would like to see them kill Thor." But when director James Gunn set his sights on RDJ's Tony Stark, Chris was quick to change his mind.
Revealing a recent discussion Chris and he had had on the subject, James revealed: "Chris and I were driving somewhere the other day and in the car we were having one of our ridiculous conversations and we were talking about all the different things that could happen to the Guardians in this universe, like we do endlessly, we talk about it constantly.
"And he was saying 'dude seriously I really really think that Star Lord should kill Iron Man. Like it would be so awesome and if he shot him, people would be so surprised".
Chris Pratt wants to go to battle with Iron Man
Chris has ideas of his own for a potential sequel which he shared with us, joking: "If not me maybe Rocket. Look none of my ideas will ever make the movies, so I should just tell you all of them. It will never be a spoiler.
"In the comic Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Iron Man have a thing. So I was thinking how would Star Lord feel about that? Maybe he doesn't like it and then Rocket hears that I don't like it then Rocket shoots Tony Stark and just blows a hole in his face, that would be amazing!"
And he's clearly not scared of rustling a few feathers as he admits: "People would be super mad but it would be kinda great. They'd be like 'why did you do that' and they'd be 'well Robert Downey Jr makes $100 million a movie we can't afford to have him. Pratt's minimum wage, we can afford Pratt, he kills everyone!"
Time for a Guardians/Iron Man crossover we think...
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