Original Iron Man 3 Script Saw Robert Downey Jr Fight 5 Different Supervillains
Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man is one of the most beloved superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actor’s performance brought the character to life to the point that fans could not help but shed tears when they had to say goodbye to it in Avengers: Endgame.
Throughout his appearance in the MCU, Iron Man fought numerous villains. Each new movie saw him fighting a new villain. From Obadiah Stane aka Iron Monger to Ultron, Tony Stark has stood up against numerous villains and managed to fight them all with or without his superhero friends’ help.
Iron Man 3 Would Have Seen More Than A Single Villain
In the third and final installment of the Iron Man film trilogy, the eponymous superhero fought Aldrich Killian’s version of the Mandarin. However, in the new tell-all book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, it is revealed that Drew Pearce and Shane Black pitched a script for Iron Man 3 to Kevin Feige in which Robert Downey Jr.‘s Iron Man would be seen fighting five different supervillains which would take the spotlight off the Mandarin which was a rather challenging character to adapt for the screen.
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This might have changed the entire trajectory of the movie as the Mandarin would be controlled by a female villainous think tank, but that idea was rejected with a memo that told Black and Pearce that a female villain might not perform well. Consequently, the entire script had to be changed.
Here is a list of the five villains that could have appeared in Iron Man 3.
Crimson Dynamo
Crimson Dynamo is one of the oldest villains in the Iron Man comics. Introduced by Stan Lee and Don Heck in 1963’s Tale of Suspense #46, the villain was an agent of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He was sent to destroy Stark Industries and Tony Stark along with his Western capitalist principles.
A version of this supervillain was seen in the opening credits of Iron Man 2, but it did not get his chance to shine unlike another villain Whiplash/Ivan Vanko who happened to be the original Crimson Dynamo’s son.
Ezekiel Stane
Unlike his father Obadiah Stane who appeared in Iron Man, Ezekiel Stane did not get the chance to grace the screens. Created by Matt Fraction and Barry Kitson in 2008’s Marvel Comics The Order #8, Ezekiel Stane is a manifestation of Tony Stark’s advanced technology.
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Tony Stark and the Stark Industries were Ezekiel Stane’s targets for his revenge plan to avenge his father Obadiah’s death at the hands of Iron Man. After Stark’s demise, the villain could have returned to the MCU as a threat to his heroic legacy.
Controller
Created by Archie Goodwin and George Tuska in 1969’s Iron Man #12, the Controller is one of the most enduring supervillains to have fought against Iron Man. When the crooked scientist Basil Sandhurst is paralyzed by a lab explosion caused due to an angry outburst, he takes the help of a metallic exoskeleton to continue functioning.
The Controller plans to gain command of the entire New York City but is stopped by Iron Man. Thanos’ technology gave him the power to mentally control weak-willed individuals and other abilities.
Fin Fang Foom
Iron Man is no stranger to extraterrestrial beings becoming his villains. Fin Fang Foom was one of these villains. It looked like a giant dragon which would obviously be a great threat to the superhero. The fact that Fin Fag Foom joined hands with the Mandarin could only make things worse.
With War Machine’s help, Iron Man managed to defeat Fin Fang Foom but that could not be done without a suit especially created for this purpose.
Ghost
Although Ghost is a supervillain that has appeared in the Ant-Man storyline, the entity has often proved to be a huge threat to Iron Man’s existence as it would attack when the superhero was in his most vulnerable state. The biggest advantage that the Ghost has is that no one knows who he truly is. The fact that the villain’s suit lets him be invisible and intangible only adds to the difficulties of defeating him.
