SDCC ’12: Marvel & Iron Man 3 panel

Gabrielle Bondi

12 years ago

An incredible Saturday at San Diego Comic Con ended with Marvel and Iron Man 3. Much was unveiled about Marvel’s upcoming projects during the panel. We got the official titles for the Thor and Captain America sequels. Thor: The Dark World comes out November 8, 2013, and expect Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4, 2014. Of those two announcements, the Captain America got the biggest response. If you’re not familiar with the comics, the Winter Soldier is an identity taken on by Bucky, Captain America’s best friend (played by Sebastian Stan), after he comes back from an assumed death. It’s fairly obvious that we can expect Bucky, hence Sebastian Stan, in the sequel.

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Guardians of the Galaxy was also announced. It will be Marvel’s next big assemble film and come out August 1, 2014. Not much was said about the project, but they did show the title treatment and concept art of Rocket Raccoon!

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The next announcement was about Ant-Man, which frankly I’m not too familiar with, but the Hall H crowd certainly was. Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) came on stage to show off some test footage he created for Ant-Man. CinemaBlend gave a great description of the footage:

The footage began with a shot of a long, white hallway with two armed guards standing at one end, guarding an elevator. The camera tracks back and goes through a grate where we see Ant-Man for the first time. He quickly leaps out of the gate – the effects weren’t 100% complete – and lands on the ground, still tiny, and starts running towards the guards. He then hits a button to become normal sized and the guards react quickly and start firing at him. Ant-Man then leaps in the air, shrinks to avoid the bullets, jumps on one of the guard’s guns and then leaps to punch the guard in the face (which causes his cheek to ripple and makes his entire body get thrown against a back wall). Ant-Man then get back to normal size and punches the other guard through a glass window. He then hits the button on the elevator and as the doors open we hear some muzak as he steps in, turns towards the camera, and the doors close.

At first, I expected to be underwhelmed. I mean Ant-Man??? But I must admit that the footage Wright showed us was incredible. With a great story, I can see Ant-Man being rather big. Like Wright said, “Ant-Man will kick your ass one inch at a time.”

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Finally, what we’ve all been waiting for: IRON MAN 3! Robert Downey Jr. danced his way across Hall H to the stage as his entrance to the panel. We couldn’t have expected anything else. We managed to catch some of his entrance in the video below:

Once Robert Downey Jr. made his way to the stage, he introduced some new Iron Man 3 footage! CinemaBlend also provides a description of what we saw:

Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) is in his technical laboratory. He asks Jarvis to cue up some seasonal music, and we get Run DMC’s Christmas in Hollis (confirming yet abother Shane Black movie set at Christmas time). He’s suiting up, and he tries to summon his new armor … with his body. It doesn’t work at first. But then a glove flies over and attaches to Stark’s hand. He gradually calls more pieces, but they come flying at him at a rapid clip. At one point, the back plate hits him so hard that he almost falls over, but uses his gloves to right the ship. The last piece to fall into place is his face mask. To get it on properly, Stark has to fly and flip over, lands in the classic three-point Iron Man pose.

The next scene is Stark talking with Happy (Jon Favreau), who gets hell from Tony for quitting his job as bodyguard (apparently he was getting too much shit from friends about being the protector of Iron Man). Happy mentions that his grandmother lives in New York City, and jumped out of a two-story window when she saw a giant robotic snake coming out of the sky. So there are a lot of references to The Avengers. Happy even busts Starks chops for being one of “the Super Friends.”

That’s the longest full scene. The rest is a montage of footage showing Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Rhodey (Don Cheadle). In one of the quick-cut shots, Pepper is picking up a banged-up Iron Man mask from a pile of rubble. We see newcomer Guy Pearce briefly, dressed in a suit, but it’s his powerful voice-over that damn near steals the footage. “Ladies, children,” Pearce says, “Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher. Lesson number one: there is no such thing as heroes.” We then see a helicopter flying outside of Stark’s Malibu mansion, firing missiles. Pepper and Tony are blown backwards, as the mansion starts tumbling into the

Pacific Ocean. The whole house is destroyed. Iron Man suits are blowing up in their pods. And Tony, now in a gold and red suit, is pulled with the wreckage into the sea.

We get the title treatment. Iron Man 3. The screen fades to black. Then we’re back. Close up of hands, with 10 rings. We pull back a little, and someone’s stroking a grey beard. From behind, we get a shot of this character cocking a pistol. And then it pulls back even further to give us our first shot of a bearded Sir Ben Kingsley in character as The Mandarin.

As you read, we saw quite a ton of footage and it all looked amazing. I wasn’t a fan of Iron Man 2, but loved the first one and The Avengers. What really got me on-board is the new writer/director, Shane Black. Black directed one of my favorite Downey Jr. movies, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. In turn, it was Downey Jr.’s role in that movie that helped him nab the Tony Stark role in the first place. So I had a lot of hope that the third Iron Man movie would be good. Now, after seeing the footage, it looks like it’s going to be great. Believe it or not, Iron Man 3 looks bigger than its predecessors and practically on the same level as The Avengers. One part that pops out in my mind is seeing Stark’s being destroyed and crumbling in the ocean.

Former Iron Man director, Jon Favreau is still a producer and was also part of the panel. He also resumes his role in the film, but this time, it’s a little bigger and crazier. Favreau describes Stark’s security guy as going “off the chain.” It’s easier for him to have more fun with it than when he was also directing. Shane Black had nothing but praise for working with Downey Jr. again, “Downey has a special place in my heart and working with him is a fucking dream… He IS Tony Stark.” The crowd, including myself, roared in agreement.

Watch a video from the Iron Man 3 panel:

Check out pictures from the Marvel presentation in Hall H on our Facebook page. Iron Man 3 hits theaters May 3, 2013!

That’s a wrap on Marvel’s presentation at this year’s Comic Con. It was easily one of the most anticipated, and it totally lived up to its high expectations. Which of Marvel’s upcoming projects are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments!