The filmmaker Shane Black, best known for writing Lethal Weapon and directing Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, has opened up in an interview about his 2013 billion-dollar hit Iron Man 3, where he revealed that when it came to his original draft of the script, the film’s main antagonist was to be a female character. The character, Aldrich Killian (played in the film by Australian actor Guy Pearce) was ultimately gender-flipped, as executives at Marvel Studios thought the action figures would sell better with a man in the role.
In an interview with Uproxx, the writer-director of the most recent standalone film for the comic book hero answered a number of questions about what it is like to produce a feature for the notoriously unbending studio executives, whose tight control has seen a number of directors depart projects citing the commonly-heard excuse, “creative differences.”
When asked about the roles played by two of Iron Man 3’s female cast, Black said the following: “We replaced a lot of things. The plot went this way and that way. Stéphanie Szostak’s character was bigger at one point and we reduced it. Rebecca Hall’s character was bigger at one point and we reduced it.”
Sir Ben Kingsley, Robert Downey Jr and Rebecca Hall on the red carpet during the Iron Man 3 press tour. Hall's character is believed to have originally been the film's original villain, with the role rewritten and played by Guy Pearce [Pixabay]
When pushed on how these characters had had their roles reduced, Black added: “All I’ll say is this, on the record: there was an early draft of Iron Man 3 where we had an inkling of a problem. Which is that we had a female character who was the villain in the draft. We had finished the script and we were given a no-hold-barred memo saying, ‘That cannot stand and we’ve changed our minds because, after consulting, we’ve decided that toy won’t sell as well if it’s a female.’”
Black’s answer is not surprising, yet certainly disappointing, for a film studio that has yet to produce a single female-led feature in its 13-film run – not to mention the fact that none of those has been directed by a woman and only Guardians of the Galaxy was written by one. Indeed, this kind of casting decision is a common feature of the Hollywood studio system. Iron Man 3 was released in 2013, two years before the lack of female character toys for Star Wars: The Force Awakens led to question ‘Where’s Rey?’ – that film’s de facto lead – trending on social media worldwide.
The Marvel decision, though, is peculiar given that on an artistic level, it shows that the economic side of show business still rules the roost. Black explained: “New York called and said, ‘That’s money out of our bank.’ In the earlier draft, the woman was essentially Killian – and they didn’t want a female Killian, they wanted a male Killian. I liked the idea, like Remington Steele, you think it’s the man but at the end, the woman has been running the whole show. They just said, ‘No way.’”
It doesn’t take someone who can list every Stan Lee MCU cameo to piece together that Rebecca Hall’s character was likely the mastermind villain to whom Black is alluding, which is frankly a far more interesting development of her role – a relatively thankless one in the film.
