Iron Man 2 is getting ready for an April 30, rollout. The Jon Favreau directed sequel to the smash hit brings Robert Downey back into the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man in a film that resurrected his career and arguably put Marvel studios on the map. The anticipation is much higher for Iron Man 2 (with a recent trailer for the new Iron man scaling charts as most viral-ly watched trailer on the net) relative to the first one which was considered a risky studio venture at the time with Marvel just a fledgling Studio and its comic book characters  locked up in a swathe of development deals. But Iron Man went on to earn over $318 million domestically, and $523 million worldwide at the box office.

In the sequel, Tony Stark  will face off against Russian bad guy Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), and gets into it with business rival Justin Hammer(Sam Rockwell).

Don Cheadle joins Iron Man 2 as his buddy James Rhodes, or the War Machine, who is introduced at a an event similar to an early 1900’s world’s fair.

Stark’s growing dependency on alcohol, the stress of the world aware now of his identity will all be explored in the upcoming sequel. Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role as Pepper Potts and has a boyfriend in the sequel.

Downey Jr.,  spent a great deal of time advising scriptwriters on the screenplay and casting decisions that bring new characters to Iron Man like The Black Widow played by Scarlett Johannson.

“We’re going a little darker. But there’s a way to do that with a playful tone,’ director Favreau told Empire. “The tendency that we will inevitably get a little bit darker, because when the superhero is facing real-world problems the drama tends to get more internal…We gravitate a little more to the tone of the films I grew up with, like the old James Bond films. There was a certain panache to them, a certain happy go lucky feel. You got a sense of danger, but always a sense of fun, too. And a sense of things being a little hyper-real. I think that’s really what Tony Stark is: a little like an American James Bond.”

Marvel Hits and Misses

Marvel Hits Iron Man, The Hulk, X-Men, Wolverine, Spiderman Trilogy

Marvel Duds The Punisher, Electra, The Incredible Hulk

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