Jon Favreau must be pleased. Iron Man 2 is garnering pretty positive reviews across the board and with the Marvel momentum rising in its wake the director is already looking to the future.
With Thor and Captain America among the films slated for released in the near future of the Marvelverse, and with The Avengers film in the capable hands of Joss Whedon coming soon after, Favreau admits in an interview with MTV that the divergent tones and character strands of each film will have their impact on a third Iron Man film.
‘Iron Man 3,’ to pay it off, there’s so much left to understand about what the world is going to be like then…You’ve got ‘Thor,’ ‘Captain America,’ ‘Avengers’ all happening with different directors before ‘Iron Man 3,’ and that’s all going to affect ‘Iron Man 3.
It could be said that the unexpected success of Favreau’s first encounter with Tony Stark helped Marvel’s foundation for their film universe to launch, and Favreau understands the difficulties in maintaining the ‘world’ of Iron Man when it has to adhere to the other films from the studio.
If you read the interview one gets the sense that, while being rightly protective of his franchise, Favreau is resigned to waiting it out and see how the other films fare, in terms of success and what unique elements they bring to bear on his next Iron Man film.
He did drop one name into the mix when asked about Iron Man 3, and that The Mandarin, who Favreau would want to play the villain on the piece.
You’ve got to do The Mandarin…The problem with the Mandarin is that the way it’s depicted in the comic books, you don’t want to see that. He has 10 magical rings — that just doesn’t feel right for our [franchise]…So it’s either tech-based, or the rings are not really rings. But maybe with Thor and all those others, you’ll introduce magic to that world and it won’t seem so out of place.
Interesting times for Marvel, as Iron Man 2 marks the initiation of their second wave of movies, all eyes are on what happens next, and with Branagh’s Thor, Joe Johnston’s Captain America and Whedon’s Avengers currently inspiring salivation from comic book fans, this will be a very interesting wait for Iron Man 3.
