Marvel’s Kevin Feige shares Iron Man 3 insight, including why it feels like a sequel to The Avengers

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has always been a good source of news tidbits about our favorite superhero movies. With IRON MAN 3 coming in a few months, we are going to begin getting more and more information about the film and hopefully a new trailer, too.

Feige was clear in his conversation with MTV that IRON MAN 3 is not the same as the first two movies, a fact they have been driving home since it was announced that Jon Favreau was handing over the directing reins to Shane Black. Here are some interesting items from the interview.

How IRON MAN 3 continues the journey started 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.”

On Tony being without his armor: “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,” said Feige. “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.”

Which version of The Mandarin will we see? “We felt there was leeway to explore the Mandarin in a way that hasn’t been explored before,” Feige explained. “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.”

Is IRON MAN 3 the beginning of the end? “Characters like James Bond and Batman, whose stories go on and on and on — I think Tony is one of those characters,” said Feige when asked if “Iron Man 3” marks an ending of sorts for Tony Stark’s cinematic journey. “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.”

Whichever way you slice it, IRON MAN 3 is shaping up to be the best Marvel movie released so far. From casting to story, IRON MAN 3 is taking the best elements of Robert Downey Jr.’s performance and taking it to a darker place. I am all for exploring the underside of superheroes and this is a great place to start in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

IRON MAN 3 is slated to open on May 3, 2013.