Marvel Studios finds themselves under the spotlight as the director of “Iron Man 3″ reveals that the original plan for the superhero sequel was to see the character played by Stéphanie Szostak take on a larger role than she did — because the studio felt that toys based on a female character wouldn’t sell.
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In a recent interview for his highly anticipated film “The Nice Guys,” director Shane Black made the revelation.
“We replaced a lot of things,”; Black tells Uproxx. “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.”;
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After being questioned about why the roles were cut, Black stated: “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-holds-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.”;
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Black made sure to add that the decision to nix a female villain did not come from Marvel Studios’ president Kevin Fergie, stating, “”;Now, that’s not Feige.”;
Could the culprit have been former Marvel chief Ike Perlmutter?
“I don’t know if it was Ike, I don’t know who it was,”; stated Black. “They never told me who made the decision, we just got that memo one day and it was about toy sales. That’s all I know.”;
