Iron Man 3 To Be A Tom Clancy Thriller And The End Of Superhero Team-ups

Robert Downey Jr being suited in his armor in Iron Man 2.
(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Shane Black is taking over the Iron Man franchise from Jon Favreau as the director of Iron Man 3 and, since he’s spent most of his career working in Hollywood as a writer, it should be no surprise to hear that he’s writing the movie as well. His Iron Man film is still a long way off, but this weekend Black offered details on just what he’s planning for Tony Stark’s next adventure, and it’s good news for everyone who’s sick of watching scene after scene in which two, CGI metal men endlessly punch each other.

Reporting from the Omaha Film Festival where Shane Black spoke, AICN says he’s planning to change things up and make Iron Man 3 into something akin to a Tom Clancy thriller. Instead of fighting yet another guy in an identical metal suit, he’ll be fighting “real world villains”. What does that mean? Remember the scenes in the first Iron Man movie when Tony ends up flying around the world battling terrorists? It happened more as a bonus montage in that film, but ended up being some of the best parts of Favreau’s first movie. I’m imagining more of that, but turned into an entire film, and that sounds really good.

Interestingly, even though Iron Man 3 will happen right after Tony Stark’s team-up with other Marvel heroes in The Avengers, Black says his movie won’t feature any other characters from the Marvel universe aside from Stark. That means no Black Widow or even a Sam Jackson as Nick Fury cameo, we assume.

Taking that a step further Black claims that the plan is for all Marvel movies made after the Avengers to switch back into solo-movie mode and that none of their superhero films which follow The Avengers will feature crossovers of any kind. Apparently they’re doing one, and only one, team-up movie. Let’s hope they make the most of it.

Josh Tyler