It looks like Marvel is going to have to call a time out as Robert Downey Jr. is heading to the sidelines. Marvel has released an official statement saying that the actor, who plays the titular character, has accidentally hurt his ankle on set, which will result in the production being slightly delayed.
HitFix, which posted the statement, says that the established release date on May 3, 2013 will not be changed. Based solely on that it would seem that Downey Jr. has hurt his ankle pretty badly (they wouldn't stop production if it weren't serious to some degree) but it's not devastating injury (a plane didn't crash into his foot).
Iron Man 3 is being directed by Shane Black (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) and is based on a script written by Black and Drew Pearce. In addition to Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau will be reprising their roles as Pepper Potts, James Rhodes and Happy Hogan, respectively. New additions to the franchise include Sir Ben Kingsley (who will play The Mandarin), Guy Pearce (the villainous Aldrich Killian) and Rebecca Hall (as Maya). It has been confirmed that the plot of the film will be an adaptation of the well-known "Extremis" Iron Man comic book arc (which is also the source of Iron Man's origin story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe).
The film has been shooting for a couple months now down in Wilmington, North Carolina. Last month a few minutes of footage was shown at Comic Con and earlier this week a possibly-fake description of the first trailer arrived online. To see more about Iron Man 3, head over to our Blend Film Database.
