Marvel's Kevin Feige Talks IRON MAN 3, Confirms A Few Things

Iron Man 3 will be the flagship of Marvel's Phase Two rollout. It's also the first post-Avengers film and second with Disney being involved. Audiences are expecting big things from the film and the teaser trailer setting up a larger Iron Man film than we've previously seen. The series not being known for it's over-the-top spectacular action sequences (previous films have had average scenes at best) which will likely change in this third installment.

Marvel's Kevin Feige spoke to Empire (via CBM) revealing a few aspects of the third film. Confirming that Rhodey is indeed inside the Iron Patriot suit along with no Avengers/S.H.I.E.L.D. coming to help Tony. He also goes into why they waited until now to use Iron Man's most notable nemesis, The Mandarin.

This is all about how he was affected by the events of The Avengers, and how his world and mindset can be affected by that. By the end of Avengers, when a portal is opened up in Manhattan and he's met Thor and The Hulk and the Chitauri are coming down on him, he realises that he doesn't know everything; we think that has had an effect on his psyche, and then his world is blown out from underneath him. 

Early - and very late - drafts of Iron Man 1 featured The Mandarin as a villain. The Mandarin is his most famous foe in the comics mainly because he's been around the longest. If you look, there's not necessarily a definitive Mandarin storyline in the comics. So it was really about having an idea. In terms of the Fu Manchu stereotyping that was involved, we never had any interest in that. He's relentless. Assuming that he's the one responsible for what happens to Tony's house, no other villain has been able to strike that fast and that hard at one of our heroes. He's very much about believing that the world needs to learn, and he wants to bend the world to his vision.

Iron Man 3 doesn't feature any of the other Avengers, or Nick Fury showing up, or any of those world-blending conceits that the Phase One films had. You have to keep in mind that Iron Man 3 had been in the works for almost a year, year and a half before The Avengers was released. We're sticking to the vision for these films, and showing once again that these characters are just as interesting alone as they are together.