Jon Favreau Exits the House of Ideas - Won't Direct Iron Man 3
Tue, December 14, 2010 
Walking out of Iron Man 2 this past May, I wasn't primed to see a third installment or The Avengers. The latter which Marvel, in no subtle fashion, shoved down our throats with zero regard for the narrative of the second Shellhead movie.
We've all since heard rumblings Jon Favreau himself wasn't pleased with it either. Mix that together with his not being hired for The Avengers, which he reportedly very much wanted, and the fact that Disney/Marvel went ahead and set a May 3, 2013 release on Iron Man 3 without comment on its director status (and remember how it practically took the studio all summer long back in 2008 to commit to a deal for him to direct Iron Man 2?) and this result isn't surprise in the slightest.
Jon Favreau will not direct Iron Man 3, courtesy of Vulture.
As of last night, Marvel has begun searching for their new helmer. But there are some hurdles to overcome. No script is on the table (as of this publishing, no screenwriter has been commissioned), they have the afore-mentioned May 2013 release hovering over them, no start-date penciled in, and the big jalapeño here, Robert Downey Junior's deal ensures he gets director approval.
May I go ahead and make my Iron Man 3 director suggestion? Why not get that Kiss Kiss Bang Bang reunion and apprehend Shane Black?
All the while, Favs is finishing up on Cowboys & Aliens (which I think will be one of the surprise hits of 2011) and starts work on his next feature The Magic Kingdom for Disney.
Reader Comments (3)
Heh, the Shane Black suggestion seemed pretty good at first...but then all I could think about was how much I'd rather a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang sequel instead of another extended Avengers trailer.
sucks fav has decided to leave marvel/disney on ironman 3. Would have loved to see where he would have taken the characters. I understand his reasons on leaving, i wish him the best of luck with his following projects. As for iron man 3, once marvel does get down to business there after avengers. I do hope they pick a solid replacement for fav as director. As for fav i would hope he appears as happy hogan again, or at least be a producer on the project. Even if its just in name only type of deal.
I don't really buy the "leaving to do the magic kingdom" news and amicable split. Domestically Iron Man 2 underperformed compared to its predecessor so I doubt Marvel was willing to dish out the money to keep him around. There are so many reasons, Iron Man 2 being used as a trailer for the avengers, no coherent script, rushing it into production. Considering though that he kept on talking about using the mandarin which is supposed to be Iron Man's big bad I don't see how you could lose interest, it would be like losing interest in batman and you still haven't used the joker.