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The 2008 Iron Man Movie Supposed To Have A Completely Different Villain

It’s been 10 years since Iron Man (2008) came out, and now MCU is approaching at the culmination of everything that has happened till now, as Kevin Feige puts it. The Iron Man trilogy starring Robert Downey Jr. has been a great success for Marvel Cinematic Universe and since then the craze for Tony Stark and RDJ has reached the seventh sky. He has made a total seven appearances in MCU movies that include Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) as well as a cameo in Incredible Hulk (2008).

Marvel studios deliberate chose to start its cinematic universe with the Iron Man movie as they wanted the over-arching plot to revolve around Tony Stark/Iron Man. Their gamble has paid off and Iron Man has indeed become the sole anchor of the entire universe with other superheroes poured in as supporting characters. He is the most admirable and a recognizable face in the MCU, no wonder he carries a lot on his shoulders.

But guess what MCU could have been entirely different today as Iron Man supposed to have a different villain. The Marvel President Kevin Feige revealed that while Stane was supposed to be there, he was thought to be a secondary villain akin to Christopher Walken in Batman Returns. He said:

“As you may recall, when he was hired, he was a secondary villain to the Mandarin. And as we were prepping the movie we realized we didn’t want to do the Mandarin in that movie. And when we took him out and made Obadiah the lead villain, Iron Man became what Iron Man became. But what was required is that Iron Monger (Obadiah Stane) had to go down into that arc reactor.”

Stane was in no way a bad villain but he wasn’t menacing enough for Iron Man movie given the list of big baddies we have seen in MCU. The idea was to launch Mandarin in the first movie and then move up the ladder. Well, if this was implemented it would have saved Iron Man 3 as well from the horrible portrayal of villain. The Iron Man movie in 2008 had an easter-egg which was a wink-wink to Mandarin if you remember the scene where Iron Man was captured by terrorists, there is a 10 rings flag behind him which is a symbol for the organization Mandarin heads in comics.

In Avengers, we saw how Iron Man saved the day by carrying missile on his shoulders away from Earth’s orbit. In Iron Man- 3, we saw how Tony Stark can literally be at two places at once. Thanks to Mark 42, he was simultaneously tracking both Pepper and President. He could also travel space to access advanced alien technologies and return in time. He embraces his superhero identity with pride. He can learn and improvise on the go. He is an MIT graduate who can hack anything on Earth. He always tries to project himself as someone “larger than life” but as Cap said he is actually nothing without a big man suit.

In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark said “My armor was never a distraction or a hobby, it was a cocoon, and now I’m a changed man. You can take away my house, all my tricks, and toys, but one thing you can’t take away – I am Iron Man”.

He has gone through dozens of armors in his life that were made for special circumstances or for fighting against a special enemy.  It’s pretty obvious that Iron Man armor will need a major upgrade as his suits don’t operate in space (we saw that in The Avengers when he was carrying nuclear missile on his shoulders).

Over the years, the suit has had major upgrades in terms of technology. In comics, Tony Stark was given the power to forge weapons using Asgardian resources. He devoted himself to learn about Uru, forged 8 weapons from the materials and infused his Extremis armor with the divine will of Odin, which is the same stuff used to make Thor’s hammer Mjolnir.

Recently, Robert Downey Jr. on his official Facebook page teased an enhanced Iron man suit embedded with Asgardian armor. Clearly, he would need something more than a standard suit to fight Thanos in space. It’s not an official concept art but Downey isn’t kidding around, the caption under the photo reads “nobody does armor like Agar.” It is also possible that all this is just a bit of trolling on the mighty fan base as the movie is still one year away from release.

The official concept art of Iron Man armor for Avengers Infinity War has been released and it’s “Prime” armor from the comics. It’s one of the most powerful suits he has ever worn as it can change shape and form. There are energy weapons loaded in its arsenal with bup-flap wings for better flight. This allows Tony Stark to use his hands for weapons.

iron man

Brian Bendis and David Marquez in 2015 came out with a design and capabilities which are said to be most amazing till date. Tony Stark made this suit when he was totally frustrated so he combined all his previous abilities into one model from nanotech to stealth to Hulk buster at will. Here’s what Brian said:

“I kind of think of the armor as a super hi-tech Lego set; it can expand into a giant Hulkbuster or contract to a skin-tight ninja-like stealth suit. It can go underwater or launch into orbit.”

Can’t wait for this anymore.

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Anuj Aggarwal

A Voracious reader. An explorer. An Intellectual. A Die hard fan of Leonardo dicaprio and a Game of Thrones fanatic. Love to dabble in different things at the same time - Politics, International Cinema, History, Music, Literature etc. Welcome you all...
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