Which character will definitely not be appearing in Iron Man 3?

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

IRON MAN 3 is looking like the darkest Marvel movie to date, despite Kevin Feige claiming it isn’t. That darkness surrounds the fallout from THE AVENGERS which seems to have impacted Tony Stark especially hard. The trailer focuses that the movie will be about Stark’s inner battle as he combats The Mandarin. It should be epic.

The very nature of the plot means that we will be witnessing Tony Stark on his own without any Avengers at his side. But, does that rule out an appearance from SHIELD leader Nick Fury as well?

According to Samuel L. Jackson, yes it does. Jackson told MTV that “None of the Avengers are in IRON MAN 3. It’s a standalone IRON MAN movie.”

Well that kind of sucks. Having Fury make his little appearances in each movie felt like it was planting the seed to THE AVENGERS. There will have to be some other kind of unifying subplot to bring the movies together. It just depends on what that will be.

Jackson did confirm that he will be appearing in at least one pre-AVENGERS sequel Marvel movie: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER. Seeing as Steve Rogers does not have many contemporaries outside of SHIELD in modern times it would only make sense that we would see the boss man in that film.

For all the planning Marvel seems to be putting into Phase 2, I would like to think that there is a method behind the madness. Hopefully we will get some pleasant surprises when IRON MAN 3 hits theaters on May 3, 2013.