Had he returned to direct Iron Man 3, director Jon Favreau says he would have had the superhero face off against the Mandarin.
“Mandarin was in drafts right up until the [first] movie got green lit,” Favreau revealed of his plans to include the infamous Asian warlord in his films to MTV News. “It was in the first film and then Mandarin, who’s a famous villain, we had references to in the second film. When I first came to Comic-Con with Iron Man, before we had started filming or cast Robert [Downey Jr.], I had mentioned that The Avengers would be the only logical third film.
“I think that’s the opportunity here. Now they’re doing it, it’s exciting, I haven’t seen the footage yet but that footage is out there in the trailer, [it’s exciting] just to see all of them together on screen,” he added.
Favreau will not direct the third installment of the franchise. Instead it will be Shane Black taking over for him.
Favreau says he’s interested to see how mainstream audiences will embrace the next big Marvel movie, The Avengers. He says comic books fans have already done that.
“[The Avengers] changes the whole identity of [Marvel films],” he said. “It’s going to have to evolve anyway, you can’t keep the stories personal and small if you want to have the whole Marvel Universe, and we’ll see if what works in the comic books translates to a film, and if the audiences who aren’t fans of the comic books could accept that or if it makes their brains hurt.”
It’s a shame that Favreau decided to take his toys and go home when he learned that he wasn’t going to do Avengers. He really had an understanding of Iron Man and was able to direct Robert Downey Jr. in such a way as to really exploit all of his greatest character attributes. Having said that, I did just see the trailer for The Avengers and all I can say is that I just CANNOT WAIT!!!!!