"Iron Man 4" is the movie everyone wants to see but nobody is making..yet. It seems like fans are ready to accept the reality of Robert Downey Jr. not returning, and they have decided to move on.

It's never too early to prepare for the worst, and when it comes to casting speculation, movie sites will are quick to the draw. Two popular movie fan sites have the same result when they tackled the burning question, who should be the next Tony Stark?

That title belonged to Colin Farrell! The Irish actor was described by What Culture: "Farrell has a strong resemblance to Downey's Stark, filling out a suit nicely and working a very similar hair style. He also proved in In Bruges that he can spit out the rapid-fire quick-wit dialogue as good as anyone,"

Moviepilot also had their own fan recasting poll and the 38 year old actor won.

But hold your horses, Robert Downey Jr is not about to let go of a $ 50 million cash cow. He told MTV:

"I would really hate for someone else to think they could step into my shoes. I wonder who's playing Tony Stark next. Is it you? Is that what you're here to tell me? I know things are looking like that they could go on for a long while. As usual in my book, it's all about quality control and delivering a product that you can have this kind of reaction to. If they keep doing that, maybe I'll keep showing up."

But MTV also cautions: "Marvel has recast roles before, replacing Ed Norton with Mark Ruffalo for 'The Avengers' and Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle for 'Iron Man 2.'  They apparently used the threat of recasting when negotiating Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Evans' sequel appearances. So yeah, Marvel's up for playing hardball."

Recasting is a reality of comic book movies no matter how good the actors are. Superman, Batman and Spider Man have all been recast. However, there is an underlying difference: The recasting is a part of a franchise reboot. It's not the same as James Bond, the analogy which Marvel President Kevin Feige used.

Will there be a Marvel reboot after Phase 3 ends (apparently with Avengers 3)? That remains to be seen. There's still about 3-4 years until then.