Kevin Fiege talks Pepper Potts and the suit, love triangles, ratings, and more for Iron Man 3

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Marvel Studios president Kevin Fiege gave an interview toAbout.com, talking about various aspects of the film, including the love triangle between Tony, Pepper, and the suits, the conventions of the “damsel in distress,” and the ratings rationale for the Marvel cinematic universe.  Compelling stuff.

On the “love triangle” in the film:

The love triangle in this movie is really between Tony, Pepper and the suits. Tony, Pepper and his obsession with those suits, and the obsession with technology. And, it’s sort of unique for a big superhero summer blockbuster franchise to have that kind of layers.

Yes, there’s a bad guy. Yes, the stakes are very, very high–the President of the United States is in danger. Air Force One is attacked. There are big stakes to this movie. But the real stakes are, is Tony going to be able to set aside the obsession to spend all day, every day in that workshop, tinkering with the suits in order to focus on, as he says in the trailer, the one thing that matters most – Pepper. And that actually is what the entire movie’s about.

On Pepper Potts and the conventions of the “damsel in distress” and suiting up:

I will tell you this. In this movie [Iron Man 3] we play with the convention of the damsel in distress. We are bored by the damsel in distress. But, sometimes we need our hero to be desperate enough in fighting for something other than just his own life. So, there is fun to be had with “Is Pepper in danger or is Pepper the savior?” over the course of this movie.

In terms of where we go with future movies, we’ll see. In the comic books she does get a taste for the suit and becomes her own hero named Rescue, who doesn’t necessarily battle other people, but is on missions to help people and to save people. Will we do that down the line with Gwyneth Paltrow? Who knows. But her being in the suit is something we have been playing with since Iron Man 2, where we did some designs and it didn’t end up fitting in that movie. But the little taste you saw here [in an Iron Man 3 clip] is something that we’re certainly interested in.

On the “family appeal” vs. PG-13 dynamic of the Marvel films:

All of our movies are PG-13. I know parents who take their four-year-olds, and I know parents who won’t let their kids see them until they’re thirteen. So, that really depends on that. For us, there are things you can do if you are going by the letter of the law in a PG-13 movie…there’s a level of violence you can add, there’s a level of sexuality you can have, there’s a level of language you can have. We never go anywhere near the top of that. Because we don’t want to. Because that’s not what our characters are about.

When you have the amount of fighting and explosions, and some blood on his nose when he puts the suit on, we do want that. We want it to be real. Otherwise, it’s just a CG thing hitting a CG person. So that’s why we’re always in that PG-13 range. But, Jon Favreau on the first two movies, Joss Whedon on the Avengers, myself–we have kids. We want to be able to take our kids to these movies and to enjoy them. It’s really the level of intensity that determines whether parents are comfortable taking their kids to it as opposed to content, necessarily.

Interesting stuff from Fiege, as usual.  It seems almost a given that Pepper Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow will wear an Iron Man suit in IRON MAN 3, but they’ve been very careful about revealing that.  It would seem that Iron Pepper is going to be the audience “clap and cheer” moment for the film.  As far as the ratings go, I don’t think there’s room to go any higher or lower than a PG-13 for superhero films.  It’s the same type of rating that is labeled to the comics on the racks, so there’s no reason for it to be any different on film.  I don’t need an R-rated IRON MAN or CAPTAIN AMERICA. I think that Fiege has, as usual, got the pulse of his brand and the audience it caters to. 

IRON MAN 3 hits theaters on May 3, 2013.