A long while back, when IRON MAN 3 first started filming, photos of an armor that looked a lot like the Iron Patriot armor from the comics, surfaced on the web. Speculation ran rampant that James Badge Dale would don the Iron Patriot suit, who is Eric Savin or Coldblood. This was squashed by Marvel, and suggested that this was Don Cheadle’s armor, that this would be the all important birth of War Machine.
Now, we have it on good authority that Marvel has snapped up the copyrights for all things “Iron Patriot,” which seems to signal that Marvel Studios has plans for the Iron Patriot. Perhaps the government doesn’t want the name of Cheadle’s alter ego to be War Machine (it is rather droll), or perhaps we’re getting a dose of Iron Patriot in another shape or form (or as originally posited). In the comics, Norman Osborne is the Iron Patriot, but with Sony holding the rights to his character and the idea of introducing Norman Osborne in an Iron Man movie seems wrong anyways, that seems out of the question. Whatever happens, I think it’s safe to say that Iron Patriot will make an appearance in some shape or form. These copyright shopping sprees rarely occur for no reason (although it’d be a handy bit of misdirection, would it not?).
I’m massively excited for this film no matter what. IRON MAN 2 was perhaps the weakest of the first “phase” of Marvel movies, but with Shane Black on board to write and direct (the guy killed it with KISS KISS BANG BANG, also starring Downey) and a little bit of time inbetween the last one and the added pressure of trying to follow AVENGERS, I’m expecting a big rebound. It doesn’t hurt that they’ve added Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Ben Kingsley, the aforementioned James Badge Dale, Ashley Hamilton, William Sadler and Dale Dickey to the mix, joining Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Jon Favreau and Paul Bettany’s cheerfully sardonic robotic voice. We’ll see it all unfold May 3rd, 2013.
