De eerste superheldenfilm in 2013 is Iron Man 3, de eerste film van de "Phase 2" in de Marvel Cinematic Universe. Volgens de eerdere berichten beleeft Tony Stark de meest unieke avonturen van tot op heden. Ook Marvel baas Kevin Feige lijkt er zin in te hebben en sprak onlangs breeduit over het derde deel.

Tegenover MTV laat Feige het volgende weten over acteur Robert Downey Jr. en zijn personage Stark: "Robert Downey Jr. gave his all to this performance. He left no stone unturned." En "So much of the journey of 'Iron Man 3' is informed by Tony's experiences in 'The Avengers. It's almost like post-traumatic stress: he really has retreated after the events of 'The Avengers' into his workshop, where he's building advanced versions of his suits. He has [designed] a version of the suit that can latch onto him in individual pieces ... anytime, anywhere. As he starts to realize, it's basically because he doesn't want to be out of the suit: he's seen a lot of things in 'Avengers' and has encountered a lot of powerful people, much more powerful than he is."

Hij vervolgt: "It brings us back to the Tony we met in the first part of 'Iron Man' where he's removed from that convoy and brought to the cave with nothing but a box of scraps. It's fun for all of us to watch Tony try to figure out how to get out of that scenario. Much of the movie is Tony in the middle of the country without his tools and a fairly broken suit to help him. But that's his superpower: he wasn't born on Asgard, he wasn't hit by gamma rays, and he doesn't have the super soldier serum. His power is his brain. It's fun to put Tony Stark in a corner with nothing and see how he can get out of it."

Ook gaat hij in op de The Mandarin, een van de grootste vijanden van Iron Man vijanden in de comics: De rol wordt gespeeld door Ben Kingsley. Feige: "We felt there was leeway to explore the Mandarin in a way that hasn't been explored before. We found we couldn't point to any sort of definitive Mandarin story in the comics— but if you print this, I'm sure a million fans will point to a specific story — so as we've done with many of the films, we did an amalgamation. The Mandarin is relentless: he's a non-stop threat, and you've seen that in the first teaser trailer when Tony Stark's house tumbles into the sea. He doesn't mess around, this guy."

Ook laat hij weten dat de film anders is dan de eerdere Iron Man films. Het wordt een echte Shane Black film: "No one has been shy — myself, Robert and [original 'Iron Man' director Jon] Favreau — about how Shane worked in the shadows of the first 'Iron Man' film, helping with certain scenes and helping with tonal things,This film, it's much less the culmination of the previous 'Iron Man' movies in part three: this is 'Iron Man: A Shane Black Film.' That, to me, is by far the most unique thing about this movie."

Feige reageert ook op de stelling dat het publiek komende jaren superhelden-moe raakt en dan het genre de rug toekeren. Feige blijft optimistisch: "Characters like James Bond and Batman, whose stories go on and on and on — I think Tony is one of those characters. Where we go directly after 'Iron Man 3' ... I'm not looking too far ahead. I'm looking to finish 'Iron Man 3,' getting into 'Avengers 2,' and then seeing where we go from there. But I do think we have more Tony Stark tales to tell, and we'll take it one movie — or maybe two movies — at a time."

In het derde deel staat Tony Stark recht tegenover een vijand, die geen grenzen kent en Tony's persoonlijke wereld verwoest. Met zijn rug tegen de muur kan Tony alleen nog vertrouwen op zijn eigen uitvindingen, vindingrijkheid en instinct. Iron Man 3 draait over zo drie maanden in de (3D) bioscoop.