Kevin Feige understands the significance of Iron Man 3. Yes, we know it is a direct sequel to Iron Man 2, given that it is the third Iron Man film. But, most importantly, the movie is a sequel to The Avengers, which has a deeper personal narrative for Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark after what happened to him in the 2012 ensemble film. This meant that great care was taken to prepare the script and balance the action of the previous films.
As a result, when Marvel Studios’ president first read Drew Pearce’s script, he turned it down and showed no interest. Then he called Shane Black and made him collaborate with Pearce on a better story. To put it simply, Feige almost saved Downey Jr.’s Iron Man 3.
How Kevin Feige Almost Rescued Iron Man 3
Lethal Weapon writer Shane Black took on the task of directing Iron Man 3 following the enormous success of The Avengers. Drew Pearce was the first to be brought in to write the script, but when he first presented it to Kevin Feige, the latter thought it was unimpressive and lacked the spirit that made Iron Man such a beloved character. As quoted in MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, he said:
“Well, obviously, I’m not going to do this story.”
However, they spent two hours debating the character, and a few weeks later, Pearce was given the go-ahead to write Iron Man 3. Yet two days later, he received word that Black had also been brought on by the studio to direct. Pearce thought he was going to lose his job, but Stephen Broussard insisted that Marvel wanted them to collaborate. Still doubtful, the British screenwriter shared:
“I am a scrub and he is an incredibly famous screenwriter. Are you sure this is going to work?”
Meanwhile, as reported by the LA Times, Robert Downey Jr. stated:
“Bringing in Shane Black to write and direct Iron Man 3 to me is basically the only transition from Favreau to a ‘next thing’ that Favreau and the audience and Marvel and I could ever actually sign off on.”
Grinning, he went on,
“The fun thing is going to be getting Happy in the movie.”
Kevin Feige on Customizing Iron Man 3
In addition to what has already been reported regarding Kevin Feige‘s initial disinterest in Drew Pearce’s Iron Man 3 script, the Marvel Studios boss also has other things to say about the film and the lead actor. He shared in an MTV interview that he did not want to merely focus on making things “bigger” for the Iron Man threequel:
“Well, the most important thing was to make a good part three. The curse of the threequel is something that people write a lot about, and I didn’t want to fall prey to that. One way to try to not fall prey to that was do something different and not rely on making things bigger, bigger, bigger.”
However, since they knew the 2013 film would take place a year after The Avengers, they were only interested in focusing on Tony Stark once again. Feige, 50, added:
“Although, ironically, this has some of the biggest action set pieces in any of our movies. But, knowing that it would come a year after ‘The Avengers’, we wanted to focus on Tony again. What we found in Iron Man and less so in Iron Man 2 was that audiences really respond to Tony—as brash and egotistical as he is.”
With a global box office haul of over $1.2 billion, Iron Man 3 was the second highest-grossing movie of 2013 and the sixteenth to break the $1 billion mark.
Feige’s next production projects are Captain America: Brave New World (July 26, 2024), Deadpool 3 (May 3, 2024), and The Marvels (November 10, 2023).
Disney+ is currently streaming all Iron Man films.
