IRON MAN 3 (Update)

• IRON MAN 3

When the trailer for Marvel Studios' Iron Man 3 first hit, the reaction was mostly positive with a lot of people pointing out what they assumed to be a huge tonal shift for the series. Going from very funny action adventure films to a bleak, dark serious movie seemed like quite a change. Well, apparently we were all seeing things that aren't actually there.

Tony Stark and his Iron Man 

In an interview with The West Austrailian, Marvel Studios producer Kevin Feige had this to say: "It's not a serious movie, but we seriously dig into exploring more of Tony. The trick is just trying to make great movies. We try to make them all great, all different and all fresh. What you'll see in Iron Man 3 is some very unique directions that were taken."

Director Shane Black also clarified what is being done with the sequel: "We're not aiming for bigger, necessarily. We're aiming for different and fresh and new. It's all about capturing that lightning-in-a-bottle feel, about trying to get as much into this as we can. We're looking to get a ton of thrills into a short space, to make a nice little stew for you."

War Machine

Even star Robert Downey Jr.talked about the changes, and he thinks they're appropriate. "You can dissect why [The Avengers] was the right movie with the right people and the right director at the time. But we feel the same way about Iron Man 3 now."

Iron Man 3 opens in 3D and 2D theaters on May 3, 2013.

UPDATE: 

Well it seems that Marvel President Kevin Feige had a little more to say about the film:

“Iron Man 3 doesn’t feature any of the other Avengers, or Nick Fury showing up, or any of those world-blending conceits that the Phase One films had. You have to keep in mind that Iron Man 3 had been in the works for almost a year, year and a half before The Avengers was released. We’re sticking to the vision for these films, and showing once again that these characters are just as interesting alone as they are together.”

Well we might get some other character dropping by for that Post-Credit scene, or who knows maybe just maybe Maria Hill played by Cobie Smulders drops in for a little cameo appearance.

Mandarin

Moving on to the supporting characters, Feige talked about the challenges in bringing the Mandarin to the screen:

“Early – and very late – drafts of Iron Man 1 featured The Mandarin as a villain. The Mandarin is his most famous foe in the comics mainly because he’s been around the longest. If you look, there’s not necessarily a definitive Mandarin storyline in the comics. So it was really about having an idea. In terms of the Fu Manchu stereotyping that was involved, we never had any interest in that. He’s relentless. Assuming that he’s the one responsible for what happens to Tony’s house, no other villain has been able to strike that fast and that hard at one of our heroes. He’s very much about believing that the world needs to learn, and he wants to bend the world to his vision.”

As for the Iron Patriot armor we’ve seen, that apparently belongs to Lt. Col. James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes,  Feige was asked why is Rhodey wearing it?

“The notion in the movie is that a red, white and blue suit is a bold statement, and it’s meant to be. With Rhodey, he’s very much the foil to Tony’s eccentricities, and in this one you get to see this and be reminded of the trust and friendship between them in that great Shane Black buddy-cop fashion.”

Finally, Feige commented on Robert Downey Jr.’s on-set injury:

“Robert is very gung-ho about doing his own stunts, but he’s also very safety conscious and aware of his limitations. He wasn’t even attempting to do anything above or beyond what would be considered safe – it was just a wire-assisted leap from one platform to another, and he came down in the wrong position on that ankle. It was a good old fashioned accident. The silver lining was that Shane started to work on the cut and continued to work on the script, and hone and refine the movie itself.”