Back in October, at the Long Beach Comic Con, Iron Man 3 director Shane Black
dismissed hopes of finally seeing the Mandarin, who has been hinted at in the
previous films, calling him a racist caricature. Then in April fans thought
they had their villain as Variety reported Ben Kingsley was in final talks to
star in the film, though no official comment came from Marvel, and insiders
denied that he would play the wealthy Chinese warlord with alien technology.
Kingsley was last seen in Hugo last
year, and has a role in recently released Sacha Baron Cohen film, The Dictator.
Two months later and the Latino Review, after a visit to the
films current filming location, claimed that Kingsley would be playing the
Mandarin. Marvel is still yet to comment but sources say the character will be
backing Dr. Aldrich Killian’s (Guy Pearce) research into a nanovirus.
A month earlier Geek Tyrant got official word from Marvel on the casting of Guy Pearce as the above mentioned geneticist, which almost confirms the rumours that the latest plot is based in Warren Ellis’ 2005 comic book ark ‘Extremis’, as Killian made his debut n that story. You can see Pearce on screen now in Prometheus, and last April he had the lead role in French action sci-fi film Lockout.
A month earlier Geek Tyrant got official word from Marvel on the casting of Guy Pearce as the above mentioned geneticist, which almost confirms the rumours that the latest plot is based in Warren Ellis’ 2005 comic book ark ‘Extremis’, as Killian made his debut n that story. You can see Pearce on screen now in Prometheus, and last April he had the lead role in French action sci-fi film Lockout.
You’ll find mention of Extremis in almost every source of Iron Man 3 news, and its writer made his own statement back in May tweeting, “yes, IRON MAN 3 is apparently using elements of my IRON MAN: EXTREMIS comics serial. No, I don’t get money or credit.”
The Extremis story already influenced the first Iron Man film with its updated origin
for Tony Stark’s heart injury, and in 2010 was turned into a motion comic. You
can check out the trailer below but the basic plot is of the theft of a new
Super-Soldier serum (which created Captain America). The man holding the gun is
Killian.
These are only two of the villains set to appear though;
once again Variety provides the details. Last month they revealed James Badge
Dale had joined the cast as Eric Savin, and just a week ago added Ashley
Hamilton as a possible choice to play Firepower. Dale has a had a few small
roles in recent films, including The Grey,
but is more recognisable from his TV work on, having leading roles in both The Pacific and Rubicon back in 2010. Hamilton on the other hand, noted as a
personal friend of Downey, will be unfamiliar to UK audiences (unless you’ve
heard his 2009 single, ‘Whimmin’) and most recently worked as a correspondent for
EXTRA, the US entertainment show.
Neither Savin (aka Coldblood) nor Firepower feature in the original
Extremis story, and Savin was actually a hero. A Lieutenant Colonel in the army
Savin had a similar fate to Tony Stark, being resurrected as a cyborg after
stepping on a landmine. Likewise Firepower (who wore armour similar in design to
the drones featured in Iron Man 2)
was not the usual villain, part of a government project designed to combat a
then rogue Iron Man who was attacking anyone in armour based on his own. The
Firepower armour featured in the ‘Armour Wars’ story ark from, and was recently
rewritten, for Marvel’s Ultimate Comics imprint, by none other than Warren Ellis.
Iron Man #230
Latino Review has the last word on casting, with Die Hard 2 villain William Sadler apparently spotted alongside Pearce at a costume fitting. No one has any idea who he would play, and of course no comment from Marvel, but Sadler also starred with Dale in The Pacific.
I’ve saved the biggest piece of news for last, and which is causing the most speculation from fans. Whats Would Tyler Durden Do? Has got some set pictures that show Dale in costume, though not as Coldblood. Instead he looks like this, the Iron Patriot.
Iron Patriot was the name take by Spider-Man villain Norman
Osborn when he formed his own team of Dark Avengers, which is why many have
noted the slight differences in design between the pictures above as Sony likely
has some claim to the character as they own the film rights to Spider-Man. It
appears that the producers are just taking random characters from the comics
and combining them with others, but the inclusion of this armour would have
been enough to tide me over for a few months until official images are
released. In this day and age though, it’s hard to avoid potential spoilers,
but it should be another few weeks until we got any concrete Iron Man news
after this recent bombardment of rumours and insider comments.
Next week its E3 so be sure to come back for some Video Game stories, and remember to join the facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/roughcutonline
Source: CBR - LBCC
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