Iron Man is, just like Wolverine, a particular type of character: RDJ owns the character pretty much like Hugh Jackman has made Wolverine his own. Such that it's hard for anyone to imagine Iron Man or Wolverine respectively with a different face.

But while characters last, actors do retire. Jackman announced his last act. What will happen to Iron Man after RDJ steps off? We know that after Iron Man 3, RDJ has signed up for two more Marvel movies.

Avengers: Age of Ultron already happened, so that leaves RDJ with yet another movie to go in order to honor his contract with Marvel. However, the post-Iron Man 3 contract bound RDJ to 2 Avengers movies, and that doesn't include the upcoming Captain America: Civil War.

So Civil War is an addition of sorts, in excess of Avengers 2 and Avengers 3. The fact, however, that Avengers 3 is split in two parts complicates the situation even more: will RDJ's Iron Man show up only in Infinity War "“ Part I, or will he be included in Russos' sequel?

Regardless of that, a question remains: what will happen to Iron Man when RDJ leaves Marvel? Here are my hypotheses.