With Iron Man 3 officially underway, it’s time to put rumors to the test. While we know the film is based off of the Extremis arc of Marvel Comics, nothing is exactly guaranteed to happen just yet or go down the exact way it does in the source material. Now, with the cast fully set and plenty of uncertainty in the air, it turns out that the upcoming film may be deviating from the material in a large way as a new report may have opened the door as to who the big villains are in the upcoming film.

Latino-Review reports that they’ve uncovered some new intel on the next Marvel Cinematic Universe adventure, and it certainly puts Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian in a more prominent role that previously thought:

Here’s what we can CONFIRM as true (and not from some guy working security on an off-lot shoot): The Mandarin (as played by Ben Kingsley) is a villain in ‘Iron Man 3,’ but he’s more a veiled threat as a silent partner to Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian. Killian is the man inventing Extremis and putting it into his “Extremis army” of multiple super-powered individuals.

Still no word on exactly how many Extremis soldiers we’ll see, but I’m sticking to my theory that the Coldblood-7 and Firepower casting will not be traditional comics versions of those characters, but instead names they’ve given to Extremis soldiers.

Now, this is certainly more or less what is divulged in the comics and certainly doesn’t seem like quite the big revelation. But, the way Latino-Review speaks about The Mandarin and Killian, it’s almost as if Killian doesn’t meet his untimely demise. In the comics, Maya Hansen (set to be played by Rebecca Hall) contacts ex-boyfriend and intelligent mind Tony Stark after Killian (Guy Pearce) commits suicide over the guilt of handing nanotechnology over to a terrorist group. Here, however, it almost sounds as if Pearce’s character is alive and is the clear and present danger that faces off against Tony.

With Killian possibly alive, how exactly does Tony get called in? Killian’s death is one that certainly sets forward some of the major events in the comics’ arc, including his locked hard drive that requires Tony’s hacking skills to crack. Obviously there’s some way around it, but it certainly pushes the narrative into a more uncertain territory.

As for Coldblood and Firepower, it certainly sounds like a more intelligent route that that of the actual superhero origins. Granted, the two are still very much canon in Marvel history, but they’re more mediocre than anything else. So, to include a Robocop-like rival and essentially another version of Iron Monger would feel just a bit lazy.

No again, there’s no confirmation that this is actually true. Not to mention the way the report words the information about Kingsley and Pearce it could turn out to be more faithful to the comics than we believe. Then again, L-R is a trusted source on scoops as they were the ones who broke the news about Thanos being in The Avengers as early as one year ago.

via Report Seemingly Confirms Multiple ‘Iron Man 3′ Villains | Durance Magazine.

and the Iron Patriot

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