More ‘Iron Man 3’ details revealed on Mandarin, Happy Hogan and possible ‘Iron Man 4’
Kevin Feige recently talked with MTV News about “Avengers 2” and the setup which begins with “Iron Man 3” this summer.
MTV has released more and more of the Marvel Exec’s comments about “IM3” during this week.
“So much of the journey of ‘Iron Man 3’ is informed by Tony’s experiences in ‘The Avengers,'” Feige told MTV. “It’s almost like post-traumatic stress: he really has retreated after the events of ‘The Avengers’ into his workshop, where he’s building advanced versions of his suits. He has [designed] a version of the suit that can latch onto him in individual pieces … anytime, anywhere. As he starts to realize, it’s basically because he doesn’t want to be out of the suit: he’s seen a lot of things in ‘Avengers’ and has encountered a lot of powerful people, much more powerful than he is.”
Audiences get a preview from the “Iron Man 3” trailer of the transition for Stark when his home/workshop is attacked and destroyed: “just as he’s starting to realize he needs to be in the suit at all times and in the safety of his workshop,” according to Feige.
That devastation pushes Tony on a new, but familiar, path.
“It brings us back to the Tony we met in the first part of ‘Iron Man’ where he’s removed from that convoy and brought to the cave with nothing but a box of scraps,” said Feige. “It’s fun for all of us to watch Tony try to figure out how to get out of that scenario. Much of the movie is Tony in the middle of the country without his tools and a fairly broken suit to help him. But that’s his superpower: he wasn’t born on Asgard, he wasn’t hit by gamma rays, and he doesn’t have the super soldier serum. His power is his brain. It’s fun to put Tony Stark in a corner with nothing and see how he can get out of it.”
The new villain for this film is Mandarin, but comic book fans shouldn’t expect the Fu Manchu clad villain of the 1960s.
“We felt there was leeway to explore the Mandarin in a way that hasn’t been explored before,” Feige explained. “We found we couldn’t point to any sort of definitive Mandarin story in the comics — but if you print this, I’m sure a million fans will point to a specific story — so as we’ve done with many of the films, we did an amalgamation. The Mandarin is relentless: he’s a non-stop threat, and you’ve seen that in the first teaser trailer when Tony Stark’s house tumbles into the sea. He doesn’t mess around, this guy.”
Jon Favreau was replaced as director by Shane Black, but fans still are uncertain of Favreau’s onscreen character Happy Hogan.
This is by far the biggest part that Happy has had in any of the films,” Feige told MTV News during our recent chat with the Marvel chief. “He’s just great in this.”
“When you put Jon in front of the camera, he tends to steal every scene he’s in, just by reading the scripted lines, but also by going off-book and ad-libbing with the best of them,” he continued. “He’s got some amazing scenes that he steals. But there’s a deeper storyline for Happy in this one, and more of a connection with Tony. The movie goes into why they’ve been friends for all these years.” (more on Feige’s comments on Favreau, Happy Hogan, click here)
Feige says that “Iron Man 3” may not be the end for Tony Stark.
“Characters like James Bond and Batman, whose stories go on and on and on — I think Tony is one of those characters,” said Feige when asked if “Iron Man 3” marks an ending of sorts for Tony Stark’s cinematic journey. “Where we go directly after ‘Iron Man 3’ … I’m not looking too far ahead. I’m looking to finish ‘Iron Man 3,’ getting into ‘Avengers 2,’ and then seeing where we go from there. But I do think we have more Tony Stark tales to tell, and we’ll take it one movie — or maybe two movies — at a time.”
“Iron Man 3” comes to theaters May 3, 2013.
[…] shelling out tons of updates on their upcoming films. An “Avengers 2″ update followed news on “Iron Man 3″ and now Marvel Studios CEO Kevin Feige talks about Phase 3 – the films that will follow […]