Marvel Studios brought the still-filming Iron Man 3 to San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday much to the delight of the fans in Hall H. Studio boss Kevin Feige was joined by star Robert Downey Jr., director Shane Black, and actor-director Jon Favreau.
Marvel screened about 5 or so minutes of footage (twice!) for fans. The clip began with Tony Stark playing with his new toys. His thought-controlled armor as he only has to gesture at his armor and/or give Jarvis a verbal command for the pieces to come flying at him. (We saw a bit of this in action in Avengers, remember?) That bit ends with a hero pose of Tony in his new silver and crimson armor.
We then see Tony video chatting with Happy Hogan (Favreau), who it's revealed is no longer Tony's head of security. He said he felt humiliated whenever he told people he was Iron Man's bodyguard. He also chided Tony for being part of the Super Friends now. That's when things took a decidedly more grim turn.
We see Pepper Potts with iron Man inside Tony's seaside mansion when BOOM! Attack helicopter fire missiles into Tony's Malibu, completely destroying it and the cliffside. The mansion collapses into the Pacific Ocean. Pepper's fate is unclear, but we see Iron Man sink into the ocean with all the rubble.
There's then a sizzle reel showing images of Guy Pearce as Killian, Rebecca Hall as Maya Hansen (Black confirmed that's the character), Don Cheadle back in action as Rhodey/War Machine, and William Sadler in a role that appeared to be that of The President. But the big reveal was the closing shots of Ben Kingsley as ... The Mandarin! Yes, folks, Marvel confirmed the character.
Kingsley's Mandarin has an American accent, a very affected one that sounded not unlike Agent Smith in The Matrix. He was decked out in his robe and his rings and had a weird beard and hairdo that, combined with his outfit, made him look like a mishmash of a samurai, an old rock star, a Klingon and a pharaoh. Like a true comic book villain, he even sat menacingly in his big chair.
Overall, the Iron Man 3 footage suggested things will get worse for Tony before they get better and that he will, in Black's words, hit "rock bottom" in the film. And, no, that's not a reference to the "Demon in a Bottle" story line because Downey, Black and Favreau all said it wouldn't really work with the tone and world they've created for their Iron Man films.
Downey also half-jokingly acknowledged that his contract with Marvel is up after Iron Man 3 and that he'd love to continue with them, but that they better let him pick which Brink's truck he wants this time.
Iron Man 3 opens May 3, 2013.
