Jon Favreau Talks About Iron Man 2 & 3

Director/Actor Jon Favreau recently sat down with the folks at Super Hero Hype to talk about his plans for the Iron Man movie franchise.

After the huge success of the first Iron Man movie it comes as little surprise that a second Iron Man was greenlighted, but apparently Favreau is already lining up plot points that will take us beyond a second film and into a third one. He is very excited about this project and foresees no problems devoting the majority of his filmmaking energies to seeing the franchise through to the end.

According to Favreau, the movie's stars Robert Downey Jr. (Anthony Stark/Iron Man), Terrence Howard (James Rhodes) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts) are all on board for at least the second movie. No word on where any of them stand on a third at this point. Favreau even plans to possibly bring back his own character, Happy Hogan, who he played in the first movie with possibly a more significant role. As Iron Man comic book fans probably know, the characters of Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan had an extensive personal relationship at one point in the comic run.

For those wondering if Howard’s James Rhodes character will don the “War Machine” armor in Iron Man 2, Favreau says he currently is working on designs for that armor along with some new modifications to Iron Man and is looking for ways to get them onto the big screen. Along with War Machine, he also is considering working in Stark’s arch-nemesis the Mandarin, an Asian crime lord who sports 10 mystical rings that provide him with super-natural powers. We already saw a hint of what may come for this villain through a reference to a terrorist cell known as the “10 Rings” in the first movie. Favreau admits that he still is trying to find a way to work the mystical nature of the Mandarin character into a film that centers primarily on technology. It’s possible that Mandarin might not make an actual on-screen appearance until the third movie – reducing the risk of overexposing the character.

Other characters and aspects from the comic that likely will make their way into the movie are Crimson Dynamo, a Russian version of Iron Man and the classic “Demon in a Bottle” storyline which saw Stark succumb to his own doubts and fears by turning to the bottle. His descent into alcoholism leads his friend Rhodes to take over as Iron Man for awhile.

Head over to SHH to check out the entire interview where they go into more details and where they also discuss how Favreau plans to deal with his movies while playing roles in Marvel’s other upcoming movies like Captain America, Thor and The Avengers.