Rebecca Hall played a major role as Maya Hansen in Iron Man 3. However, her role was supposed to be more important in the Robert Downey Jr. threequel. It was due to the toy sales of the company, the makers decided to reduce her part from the movie. The director of the movie Shane Black and the actress have stated how the role was drastically changed midway due to the toy sales.
It must be noted that Marvel at present is very different from the Marvel that existed back then. The current CEO Kevin Feige didn’t have absolute control as well. This led the studio to suffer from some controversial decisions by Ike Perlmutter. The reduction of female roles from the earlier MCU was also a result of the Marvel Executives’ decision.
How did Marvel’s toy business affect Rebecca Hall’s character in Iron Man 3?
Before Disney fired Ike Perlmutter, there were a series of bad decisions that affected the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He was also the reason for the lack of the Black Widow merchandise. The billionaire didn’t believe that the merchandise of female characters would make it well among the fans.
When director Shane Black spoke to Uproxx, he called out this gendered approach. He stated how he along with screenwriter Drew Pearce had to change the character of Maya Hansen midway. In the movie, we spotted Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian to be the main antagonist. This role was however planned for Rebecca Hall which they couldn’t execute.
“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- Now, that’s not Feige. That’s Marvel corporate, but now you don’t have that problem anymore.”
This led the role to being reduced and we saw the character facing her abrupt death at the hands of Killian. Rebecca Hall also made it clear in several interviews that the movie delivered something very different from what she signed up for. The role that was initially offered to Jessica Chastain was supposed to get a heroic end of the initial script.
Rebecca Hall on her missed opportunity in Iron Man 3
Rebecca Hall had an amazing chance to play the main antagonist in Iron Man 3 until her role was cut from the movie. Her role was very substantial in the movie along with a heroic ending which was reduced to nothing. Besides her, Marvel also reduced the role of Stéphanie Szostak’s Ellen Brandt.
When she was on her promotional tour for her widely acclaimed Christine, she said to The Toronto Sun that she wanted a decent death as well as a scene with Robert Downey Jr. from the makers.
“Halfway through shooting they were basically like, ‘What would you think if you just got shot out of nowhere?’ I was meant to be in the movie until the end… I grappled with them for awhile and then I said, ‘Well, you have to give me a decent death scene and you have to give me one more scene with Iron Man,’ which Robert Downey Jr. supported me on.”
The actress then also went on to praise the current Marvel which has focused on its female characters more in the recent past. But it must also be remembered that a balance should be maintained so that we don’t feel an overdose of a specific type of movie in the superhero universe.
Iron Man 3 can be streamed on Disney+.
