Nolan Fans Despair: Iron-Man 3 Won’t Be Too Serious

Despite fan clamoring over the gravitas of the first trailer, Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige assures us Iron-Man 3 won’t be a dour, caffine-free affair.

Iron-Man 3 is kicking off a whole, new phase of Marvel’s cinematic output, and many fans have been wondering how different the post-alien invasion world of The Avengers would impact a cavalier playboy like Tony Stark.  A fairly dark teaser trailer made it seem like the Marvel Universe would be inching toward the “grim and gritty” approach overdone by directors like Christopher Nolan, but fortunately Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige has been making the rounds to assure us we’re in for a much better time than that.

Here’s what he had to say about the tone of the third outing for ol’ shellhead:

It’s not a serious movie, but we seriously dig into exploring more of Tony. The trick is just trying to make great movies. We try to make them all great, all different and all fresh. What you’ll see in Iron Man 3 is some very unique directions that were taken.

I think that sounds pretty promising, and that “unique direction” will, of course, be under the eye of director Shane Black.  He’s worked with Downey, Jr. before (for the impossibly fun Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang), and Feige goes on to reveal Iron-Man 3 will be a classic buddy cop movie between Tony and James Rhodes (whose War Machine armor is getting the previously-revealed upgrade to Iron Patriot’s colors).  In case you didn’t know, Shane Black is the guy behind Lethal Weapon, so needless to say, he knows something about buddy cops.

But aside from Rhodey and Pepper, don’t expect any cameos from the rest of the Marvel Universe– according to Feige even Nick Fury will be sitting this one out.  That could all change, especially considering how quickly character cameos can be plugged in to these movies (the Hawkeye scene in Thor was inserted in post-production, and The Avengers‘ infamous schwarma scene was filmed after the movie’s premiere), but I tend to think Feige is being honest, and now that the scale of the world is in place, cameos and bridge sequences seem much less necessary for Marvel Phase Two.

With a solid director playing to his strengths– and one with a guaranteed track record of keeping Downey, Jr. in check– combined with the reveal of The Mandarin (at last!), I have high hopes for Iron Man 3.  Phase Two is looking plenty promising between Guardians of the Galaxy, The Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World, and signs are looking good that Iron Man 3 will be a strong start out of the post-Avengers gate.

Source: Badass Digest