Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr., appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres show on Tuesday, promoting his new film The Judge, when the topic inevitably came around to the future of everyone’s favorite red and gold shellhead.

He tried to skirt the issue, likely for effect, even as Ellen prodded him to give her a definitive answer.

“I know there’s going to be a bunch more Marvel movies,” explained the actor. “And they have big ideas of how to do it best and we’re in the middle of negotiation…”

But Ellen refused to take a non-answer for an answer, until finally he came out with it.

“Okay, yes,” replied Downey.

This directly contradicts what he has said in the past. As recently as a month ago, Downey was asked about the future of the Iron Man franchise, to which he responded “There’s no plan for a fourth ‘Iron Man.'”

That seemed a bit hard to believe, but nonetheless within the realm of possibilities, since Downey’s contract with Marvel extends to just two more films, next summer’s Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, and a third Avengers film, as of yet unsubtitled (though die-hard fans suspect it will have something to do with the Infinity Gauntlet).

But this confirmation is all the information there is at the moment. A fourth film coming, but no official title, not even a release date, and considering Marvel has announced their slate of upcoming releases through 2019 as part of the studio’s Phase Three lineup, it’s tough to guess where this film would fall within the Marvel Cinematic Universe time-line.

Of course, Downey could be well aware there is an Iron Man 4 film on the horizon, yet there is no guarantee he would actually star or appear in it. The Iron Man armor, and multiple variants, have been worn by a number of different characters in the comic books. Perhaps his announcement to Ellen hasn’t quite revealed all just yet.

Appearing in a Reddit AMA on Tuesday, Downey gave an ambiguous response to a question concerning the future of the Marvel films and his participation in them.

“Sooner than later the Marvel Roster will be made public and all questions will be answered.”