Shane Black shares which Iron Man storyline Marvel and Disney consider off limits

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

IRON MAN 3 is looking to be the darkest film based on the Marvel character to date, but director Shane Black shared that there is a limit to how dark Disney is willing to go with their superheroes. We have seen some pretty gnarly stuff in THOR and THE AVENGERS, but violence does not seem to be the type of dark that concerns the House of Mouse. Even though these are PG-13 movies, the studio is shying away from one of the most famous arcs in Iron Man comics.

In an interview with Comic Book Movie, Black explained there is one story he really wanted to tell but was told that it was not going to happen.

“The drinking. Even if you look at the websites of the mommy bloggers they say, you know, ‘Watch out, mom’s! Tony drinks in this movie!’ It’s amazing. There’s one or two scenes in this movie where he picks up a drink and it’ll be in those blogs…I think we were just told by the studio that we should probably paint Tony Stark as being kind of an industrialist and a crazy guy, or even a bad guy at some points, but the Demon in a Bottle stuff of him being an alcoholic wouldn’t really fly. I don’t blame that.”

Back after the first IRON MAN hit theaters, Jon Favreau discussed that being an iconic story that he wanted to get on the big screen. Fast forward to today and Shane Black‘s words reek of studio involvement. Again, I understand that Disney needs to make things marketable, but alcoholism is also a real world problem that they could display on the big screen as a cautionary tale. If SUPERMAN III were made today, we never would have seen a drunk Superman with a bottle of Jack Daniels.

Ask any comic fan and they will tell you how integral “Demon in a Bottle” is to Tony Stark’s evolution as a character. There are ways to achieve the same psychological development while excluding the hard liquor, but they won’t have quite the same resonance with fans.

IRON MAN 3 opens everywhere on May 3, 2013.