'Iron Man 4' news: Natasha Romanoff taking over Iron Suit?

Unconfirmed reports earlier came out stating that Robert Downey, Jr. would reprise his role as Iron Man/Tony Stark in a new "Iron Man" movie, which would be the fourth in its stand-alone series of films. These reports gained hold when Downey, Jr., himself hinted that there may be an "Iron Man 4" still left in him.

"I don't know how long I'll do it for. I'll keep playing Iron Man for a couple more years, I guess," the 51-year-old actor told The Daily Star.

Another rumor which comes at the heels of this development is that Mel Gibson, who is a close friend of Downey's, will be directing the fourth "Iron Man" sequel, replacing Shane Black who directed "Iron Man 3."

Black himself only had good things to say regarding this possibility of Gibson directing a fourth "Iron Man" film. In an interview, he pointed out that it was Downey's idea for Gibson to do so.

Downey has three more films he already signed up for, which means Iron Man/Tony Stark will be highly visible on the big screen in the next three years. He will be in Tom Holland's stand-alone movie, "Spider-Man: Homecoming," next year, the "Avengers: Infinity War Part 1" in 2018, and finally, "Avengers: Infinity Part 2" in 2019.

Marvel has made no official announcements on another "Iron Man" film. However, if "Iron Man 4" is going to be made, Downey would then be 54 by the time he finishes up his previous commitments.

His advancing age is something he himself has brought up time and again. And more recently, after filming "Captain America: Civil War," he spoke of the fight scenes he had to do and the fact that he had gotten injured doing some stunts with Chris Evans, who plays Captain America.

He said, "I managed to stay in shape somehow. I do have a lot of electro-medicine devices. So when Chris was all banged up I'd have him come in the trailer and heal them up a little bit. He's young, he can take a few knocks. But I've got to be careful."

With that in mind, speculations have surfaced that Marvel may be recasting the Iron Man role when the studio gets around to doing it, and this time, a woman may be donning the iron suit. Some rumors suggest that it would be Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson.

Although this may come as rather surprising, even preposterous, it is not without basis. Rooted in Marvel's Ultimate comic books, Natasha had been gifted with her own Iron Man suit by Tony Stark when the two were dating. That story though did not end up well, as Natasha turned traitor and was revealed to be working against the Ultimates. She also turned out to be the very one who ended the life of Stark's butler, Jarvis.

This could become a promising storyline and would give Marvel leeway to do a Black Widow stand-alone film.

For now, though, all these are mere speculations until Marvel chooses to make an official announcement.