Jon Favreau Talks “Iron Man” Trilogy

Chud scored an interview with Jon Favreau about his plans for his sequels to Iron Man, and he had some cool things to say. Yes, he’s definitely planning a trilogy, with the Chinese criminal mastermind known as the Mandarin being the overarching villain. His presence was subtly noted in the first film with the Ten Rings organization that held Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark captive, but he’ll definitely need some reinvention to fit into this more realistic Marvel universe that Favreau is helping to forge. In the comics, he’s a kind of sorcerer guy with five magic rings on each hand and he can do all sorts of crazy stuff. That doesn’t fit into this high-tech world, and Favreau seems to think the same goes for Thor, which makes things somewhat suspect for Marvel’s planned Avengers movie, since Iron Man and Thor are mainstays on that team.

Now that The Dark Knight has blown up so huge, it’s inevitable that people will want to ape that, but Favreau says he’s more interested in complicating his characters’ personal lives rather than their plotlines, which likely means Stark’s fabled alcoholism will make itself known in part two, since it was alluded to so heavily in the first film. He’s apparently considering this trilogy one long story like The Lord of the Rings, rather than episodic sequels like Spider-Man, and the fact that we’ve got a Cold War resurgence bubbling up in the real world means that a lot more of Iron Man’s comic-book enemies are back on the table, like the big Russian armored soldiers Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man (whom Paul McCartney’s Wings have a song about, oddly enough). More mecha-fighting would mean more action, and apparently Favreau’s quite aware that the climactic fight scene in the first film didn’t quite blow everyone away. He does say he’s learned a lot, though, so here’s hoping he can up the ante if he throws these new tin men into the mix. That could work out well, as he’s also planning to put Terrence Howard into his own suit of armor and introduce the War Machine in part two as well.

It all sounds awesome. We can only cross our fingers and hope Marvel doesn’t fumble with the rest of the Avengers, because Iron Man is currently their crown jewel.