By Marvel standards, Iron Man 3 was a pretty radical departure from the tried-and-test formula. And it’s all down to Shane Black that Tony Stark’s third solo adventure is still celebrated for its unique qualities – be it the zippy dialogue or the bait-and-switch surrounding the Mandarin.
Sure, it’s a move that proved controversial among some circles, but the fact that Iron Man 3 grossed $1.2 billion worldwide is living proof that Shane Black and Robert Downey Jr. delivered the goods back in 2013.
The creative duo had collaborated previously on Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, and as Black tells Collider, both he and RDJ were able to play things fast and loose during production – to the point where Downey Jr. brought filming to a halt in order to tinker with the threequel’s dialogue.
On Iron Man, Downey would be like, ‘Time!’ and I’d be like, ‘We’re shooting!’ and he’d be, ‘No, shut the cameras,’ and we’d go back to the trailer and we’d all write because he wanted new lines. I mean, maybe it’s a little bit of that. Maybe I took a lesson from him. We’ve had a great deal of fun incorporating input from talented people who haven’t been looking at the same pages for two years.
Fast forward to now, and Shane Black has seemingly carried that process over to The Predator, which stars the likes of Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key, Sterling K. Brown, Thomas Jane, Jacob Tremblay and a horde of extraterrestrial nasties capable of turning invisible (or ripping out a human spine) at a moment’s notice.
Circling back to the MCU, though, and it would seem that there is little-to-no hope of a fourth Iron Man movie; instead, it appears Tony Stark will hold a pretty prominent role in Avengers 4, and may well wield an Infinity Gauntlet of his own…
