MCU witnessed miraculous achievement with the release of The Avengers, which marked the beginning of bigger battles, higher stakes, and tragic ends. But while the movie achieved its success by showing all the characters coming together to defeat a common enemy, Marvel still wanted to do the same with their standalone movies.
Thus, the job fell on the most popular hero of the bunch, Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man. That’s how after the release of The Avengers, the MCU came up with Iron Man 3. Later on, with Jon Favreau leaving his directorial responsibilities and the offer going to Shane Black, Marvel found a way to include the infamous Mandarin twist.
Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man 3 Went to Shane Black
Following the success of The Avengers, where audiences were offered the phenomenal sight of their beloved characters coming together to destroy a common enemy, Marvel decided to carry on the same with their standalone movies. Thus, after the release of The Avengers, the responsibility fell on the popular hero, Robert Downey Jr‘s Iron Man.
However, by the time Marvel Studios decided to work on Iron Man 3, Jon Favreau had given up his directorial responsibilities for the movie. Stating publicly that he wouldn’t return to helm Iron Man 3, Favreau’s exit marked the entrance of Shane Black. Apparently, Black’s entry was secured by Robert Downey Jr. as he pitched Black when the hunt was on for a new director.
Marvel liked the idea of hiring writer/director Shane Black and also hired Drew Pearce to co-write the screenplay for Iron Man 3, alongside Black. But unfortunately, the director was initially reluctant to work with a co-writer. However, soon enough Black quickly came to embrace Pearce’s company and began working together on Marvel’s demand for an iconic villain.
Shane Black And Marvel Offered The Mandarin Twist
Since the whole idea of coming up with standalone movies and pitting the central character against its nemesis marked the origin of Iron Man 3, Marvel wanted to include one of Iron Man’s most iconic villains, The Mandarin. Although this character was considered for the first Iron Man movie, it eventually made its way to the silver screen with the third installment.
Pulling from the Extremis comics, Shane Black and Drew Pearce initially planned on adapting The Mandarin in a pretty straightforward manner. However, Marvel Studios had different plans for the character. As revealed in MCU: Reign of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige and Stephen Broussard wanted the destruction of Tony Stark.
“Marvel was very gracious, actually. They didn’t know who the villain was. They had kind of expressed a desire that it be The Mandarin at some point, but they were willing to let it not be The Mandarin. They wanted it to be about sort of the destruction of Tony Stark, and the one scene I remember being given on Day One was his entire house and his entire laboratory are sort of decimated and taken out from under him.”
Thus, finally Shane Black offered Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man 3, the infamous Mandarin twist. Although the Mandarin twist may have divided the fandom, it also served as the framework for a better approach to Marvel villains.
Watch Iron Man 3 on Disney+.
Read more: Robert Downey Jr Has Reportedly Agreed to Return to MCU Following Endgame Death
