The Lastest From the Desk of Tony Stark

The day following Iron Man's highly successful opening weekend, Marvel Entertainment announced an April 30, 2010 release date for Iron Man 2 (now moved to May 7.)  Shortly after that, Terrence Howard revealed that filming was set to begin in March 2009.  And that was the last we heard from Terrence Howard.

So, with about a year to speculate on what demons Tony Stark will face in the follow-up, we humbly launch our Iron Man 2 Spoiler Zone...

Confirmed:

• Jon Favreau planned Iron Man as the first in a trilogy.


• Stan Lee's cameo has been revealed. He will play talk host Larry King.


• Terrence Howard has been replaced by Don Cheadle to portray James Rhodes.
  
  
• Sam Rockwell is playing Justin Hammer, an evil arms deal and rival of Tony Stark.
  
  
• Scarlett Johansson is playing Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow which will most likely be in her agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. capacity, as well as a love interest for shell-head.
  
  
• Mickey Rourke is playing Ivan Vanko/ Whiplash, aligned with Justin Hammer.
  
  
• The movie version of Whiplash is a hybrid of the comics' Blacklash and Crimson Dynamo. Ivan Vanko is the son of Anton Vanko, the Crimson Dynamo from the comics.
  
  
• Samuel Jackson says that Nick Fury won't be seeing "action" till after Iron Man 2, which we presume means he'll just be all talk until The Avengers.
  
  
• Favreau believed the sequel will allow a latitude in tone, and explore darker story elements such as alcoholism, which he intentionally set aside from the first film.


• Gwyneth Paltrow will return as Pepper Potts, now a partner in Stark Industries.
  
  
• Wikipedia reminds us that Robert Downey Jr. has said "the next one is about what do you do with the rest of your life once you've completely changed. I think the drinking and all that stuff would be a good way to confront his age, to confront his doubts, to confront the fact that maybe Pepper gets a boyfriend."


• Downey and Favreau met with Shane Black, who suggested they model Stark on Robert Oppenheimer, who became depressed with being "the destroyer of worlds" after working on the Manhattan Project.


• Terrence Howard added this would be the manner in which his character would become War Machine, like in the comics: Rhodes adapting to a new suit after Stark succumbs to and defeats alcoholism.


• Favreau perceived depicting Iron Man's nemesis, the Mandarin, as a challenge, as he finds the use of the character as a metaphor for communism dated.


• There are references to the Mandarin into the first movie, primarily with the terrorist organisation named the Ten Rings.



Says Favreau, "I'm glad that we didn't try to attack the Mandarin the first time around. There is a lot that is very relevant about that character, in the pool of the landscape that we find ourselves in, but there is something off putting and distasteful about the way that the Mandarin had been presented back in the '60s. I don't think that is relevant anymore. How do you maintain the core spirit of what makes that villain so formidable without having something that either seemed out of our reality, as far as what his abilities are, or the way he is depicted." (ComingSoon.net)

• The first screen reference to The Avengers is in Iron Man, when the Ultimate version of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) appears in a post-credits scene and speaks with Tony Stark about the "Avenger Initiative."


• The music will be comprised heavily of AC/DC tunes and a companion disc of greatest hits and lesser known cuts will be released with the film.


• The Mark V Armor will be shown, including its ability to break down into a briefcase.  This armor will also resemble the Silver Centurion Armor from the West Coast Avengers series.
  


• The Mark VI Armor with its triangular chest piece is used in one of the posters


• Favreau has hinted that the Iron Man 3 would feature a storyline revolving around The Avengers.


• Favreau has acknowledged that he is weary of the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline because of the film Hancock and the themes it explores:

  "I also want to see what other movies are doing. It seems that Hancock is dealing with a lot of those issues too. The comic book fans might see "Demon in a Bottle" as a fresh story line but I haven't seen Hancock yet. From what I've seen it seems there is a lot of imagery that seems to be shared. Him flying through billboards and things. The idea of the hero whose biggest enemy is himself, and him fighting through his demons, you want to come at the audience with something fresh. You don't want to feel like you are echoing something that somebody else is doing. I think you have to look at the comics, look at what else Marvel is doing, but then you have to look at the landscape of superhero films. There are so many out there." (ComingSoon.net)

• Finally, in a May '08 issue of Entertainment Weekly, Jon Favreau gave some of his thoughts on Iron Man sequels:

• “We've been speaking informally about it and in concept we would all love to work together again. There's definitely a level of enthusiasm from myself and the cast to tell more stories.”

• The director goes on to talk a bit on the "Avenger Initiative" mentioned during the amazing ending of the film, stating that he would love The Avengers to appear in the third Iron Man film.
  
  “I think that was a very, very clever way to keep the dialogue going with the fans, because if you don't have any tricks up your sleeve, they feel like they've already seen the whole movie before they did.” And the tie-in with The Avengers wasn’t just to please the fans. “I think [The Avengers] would be a very smart third film in the Iron Man series. It's very difficult to keep these franchises from running out of gas after two [movies]. The high point seems to be the second one, judging by history.”

Rumored:

• The sequel will heavily focus on War Machine. When Terrence Howard was still aboard he said, "Judging from how that audience responded, we got a pretty good shot of having some War Machine go down." (MTV.com)


• Thor will appear in the sequel, setting up the Thor film.


• Iron Man will face off against Mandarin in the sequel.


• Captain America’s shield has been spotted lying around Tony Stark’s workshop, there have been rumors that Captain America will be interwoven in the second film's story line to set up the Captain America film, due out shortly after Iron Man 2.
  

Got any others? Add it to the comments section below. Think these spoilers suck? Sound off and share your thoughts. Updates will be added to this page as more information becomes known. Iron Man 2 opens on May 7, 2010.

"You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe; you just don't know it yet."
-Nick Fury