With Robert Downey Jr. touted to return to the MCU, fans have been reminiscing about the actor’s prominent performances as Iron Man in the franchise. While his last performance as the character is Avengers: Endgame, he has not had a solo outing since 2013’s Iron Man 3, which seemed to have been released in a different era for Marvel.
The film came right after 2012’s The Avengers and introduced many characters such as Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian, Rebecca Hall’s Maya Hensen, and Ben Kinsgley’s infamous Mandarin. However, director Shane Black revealed that the script for Iron Man 3 was completely different and that Marvel changed their minds about an important plot point. Spoilers ahead for the film.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man 3 Had A Lot Of Drama
Talks for a new Iron Man film with Robert Downey Jr. after Iron Man 2 and The Avengers were already in place. However, there was a feud between the distribution company Paramount and Marvel’s parent company Disney for distribution rights to Iron Man 3. The feud was finally settled after Disney agreed to pay $115 million to Paramount for the rights.
Jon Favreau declined to return as a director for the third film, after setting up the MCU with Iron Man and Iron Man 2. Instead, Downey Jr. approached his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director Shane Black to helm the sequel. Black mentioned that he would take a spy-thriller approach to the film much like the Jack Ryan novels of Tom Clancy.
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The film had many such issues during its making, with Kevin Feige calling it one of the hardest Marvel films to make. One of the biggest criticisms that Iron Man 3 drew was the decision to parody the Mandarin, making him a puppet being controlled by Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian. The Mandarin is a classic villain of Iron Man and fans were not happy with the dismissal of one of its strongest villains.
Black mentioned that he did not know that the villain was that iconic and the comic book version of the character would not fit in the mythos of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. Despite all the criticisms, the film earned $1.2 billion at the box office, making it the only solo Iron Man film to cross the $1 billion mark.
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Marvel Changed The Fate Of Maye Hensen To Sell More Toys
While Iron Man 3 was commercially successful, it was reportedly a different movie when it was conceived initially. Shane Black apparently wanted to set the film in the real world as much as possible and avoid any references to magic. The film also dealt with Robert Downey Jr.’s character’s PTSD after the events of The Avengers to give it more authenticity.
One of the major changes that occurred after the script was done was replacing the villain in the film. In the initial script, Rebecca Hall’s Maya Hensen was supposed to be the main villain who was eventually revealed to be pulling the strings, much like Aldrich Killian in the final film. However, the plot point was changed due to Marvel’s directive.
Shane Black revealed in an interview with Uproxx,
“There was an early draft of Iron Man 3 where we had an inkling of a problem. Which is that we had a female character who was the villain in the draft. We had finished the script and we were given a no-holds-barred memo saying that cannot stand and we’ve changed our minds because, after consulting, we’ve decided that toy won’t sell as well if it’s a female.”
The directive reportedly came from Marvel’s corporate office which was headed by former CEO Ike Perlmutter, though Black did not take his name. Hence, Hall’s Maya Hensen was killed off midway through the film.
