Jon Favreau Talks About the Future of Iron Man

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 5, 2008

Our friends over at Coming Soon were lucky enough to have caught up with Iron Man director Jon Favreau on the set of I Love You, Man, a comedy in which he plays a supporting role to Jason Segel, Paul Rudd and Jaime Pressly. And as you can imagine, while there was talk about this new project, most of the questions were in the direction of a recently unleashed, shell-headed superhero and his future on the big screen.

And while Favs played coy, as no pens have yet met paper on a deal for Iron Man 2, he did talk about his hopes for the future of the franchise, as well as some of the other superhero films that he is looking forward to this summer.

On Iron Man 2, he admitted to the fact that it is something he definitely wants to do, but it would not come without its challenges. “I would do it. Hopefully we’ll figure out how to get “Iron Man 2″ going and I’ll be involved with that,” he said. “You have got to out-do what you did before. So, if the last one took two years, we would need at least that to do what we are talking about, or at least thinking about. Nobody knew about “Iron Man,” and that was a disadvantage in some ways, but nobody expected anything. I think people were pleased based on the fact that they had no preconceptions about the project. Now, we have a movie that people seem to like and you can’t give them less. You have to give them more. There are challenges that come with that as well as the benefit of people already understanding who he is and the character. We told the origin story so where do you go from here? There are plenty of story lines to explore from the 40 years of history from that character.”

He also talked about some of the delays that have frustrated fans regarding the progress on Iron Man 2. “I think that Marvel has their hands full right now,” he explained. “They have another big movie coming out right now, with “The Incredible Hulk,” and that’s coming out in a couple of weeks. I know from when I was in that position on “Iron Man” a lot of the heavy lifting for the studio comes in at this stage in the game. They are partnering up with Universal trying to figure out how to roll out the marketing campaign for that, so a lot is riding on that film. I know that they are done creatively working on it, but that is only half the game, so I think right now it’s a small studio. There are not a lot of people and I’m sure they have their hands full on that one. Hopefully when the dust settles everybody will be ready to get their head in the game and try to make some more movies.”

And when the dust settles, Favs may begin to work on the next one, should he be offered the job. And while the “Demon in a Bottle” story line is one that has been tossed around a lot — the story line in which Tony Stark becomes his own worst enemy — Favreau is hesitant to jump right into demonizing the character. “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.”

He also mentioned Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, which deals with a very similar character in Batman. “I think as the summer roles out, and I’m really curious about “The Dark Knight” to be honest with you. That was this looming presence that we knew was going to be a great film.” He also conveyed his understanding that Iron Man could have been borne of the same cloth as Batman. As well, he expressed a significant amount of respect for Christopher Nolan, who seems to have found success in guiding a franchise. With Iron Man, Favreau seems to want to do the same.

Ultimately it is still just as clear now as it was at Comic Con last July that Jon Favreau is the perfect director for the Iron Man franchise — he is one of those guys who really has his head on straight when it comes to who the character is, where he has been and where he is going. From the beginning, it has been evident that both he and star Robert Downey Jr. had thought about taking the character beyond the first film, and for good reason — not only is Iron Man a critical success, but it has successfully introduced a mainstream audience to one of the most exciting and interesting characters in the Marvel Universe.

That said, it is essential that Marvel Studios and their impressively capable President Kevin Feige do what they can to keep Favreau and Downey, as well as the rest of the cast, on board for future films. Having seen the comments from Favs, it is now a little more understandable as to why things have not gotten started yet — The Incredible Hulk is a very pivotal moment for the studio, and its success next week will be a real driving force for Marvel’s future. At least, we can only hope.

For those interested in the full interview, it can be found over at Coming Soon.

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