Iron Man 2 villains revealed

[Captain Craig]

So is Mickey Rourke the "flavor of the month" casting. What with Wrestler getting so much praise. Is this franchise going to be the place where "has beens" come to be fully thrust back into good graces? Its not a knock, just an observation. Obviously RDJ shined and if Rourke can dig deep and give us that inner actor that's been on hiatus then great.


Its been often times alluded to that the Mandarin at most could be seen in shadow or poor lighting in IM:2. However, the comment I've heard most is that they are saving him for the big reveal in an IM:3. He has to come out in a "if you want it done right" type attitude. No more string pulling, time to get his hands dirty. Frankly I like that its how they have it mapped out.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

I've seen The Wrestler, it is indeed a really good movie. Rourke, Tomei, Aranofsky did a great job.

I wonder if Mickey's starting to get typecast as the big bruiser. First in the movie Diner, then Sin City, recently The Wrestler and now Iron Man 2?

Viggo Mortenson played a great Russian brute in Eastern Promises. Perhaps he can be Crimson Dynamo. Although why not just cast a Russian actor, with some star power and who can act?

 

[Neroon]

I've seen The Wrestler, it is indeed a really good movie. Rourke, Tomei, Aranofsky did a great job.

I've been debating about seeing this one... but after seeing a good teaser for it and seeing some reviews liek yours, I think I will.

Although why not just cast a Russian actor, with some star power and who can act?

Not that I am decrying your idea, because it makes sense. But do you have anyone in mind? I'm not exactly well-informed on good actors of Russian descent.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

The villains should be Mickey Rourke as Harley Davidson and Don Johnson as the Marlboro Man.

Saw a bit of TUCKER: THE MAN AND HIS DREAM the other day, and thought, wow, Stane in IRON MAN was like an evil Preston Tucker.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I think this is excellent news. I've always thought Rourke was one of the great talents of Hollywood and that the way his career and personal life took a nosedive was a tragedy (albeit in no short measure of his own fault). It's great to see him getting a good run of movies, both commercial and critical faves. Of course, the Mickey of the 1980s would have turned his nose up at a project like IM, but he seems to have more sense this time round.

Rockwell is also a seriously under-rated actor who always livens up the screen. And we know from Charlie's Angels that he gives good bad guy.

The first movie had a seriously top heavy cast for a relatively low-budget and low-ish profile character. With Don Cheadle replacing Terrance Howard and the Rourkester and Rockwell apparently joining too, looks like this one is shaping up nicely. Hopefully the script will be just as good too.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Will Good Will Riker buy the first movie on DVD now that he knows the Mandarin isn't in the sequel?

 

[Aragorn]

^ Isn't he boycotting all Nazi movies until they finally make one that shows the true Asian American experience of living in Nazi Germany?

 

[Nick Ryder]

Well as I recall most of the early Iron Man stories from both Tales of Suspense (the title he debuted in) and Iron Man featured most of these names being dropped. Crimson Dynamo came first, as a Russian scientist who created his own suit of 'mighty electrically powered armor!' who eventually defected to the USA after realizing his Russian 'superiors' were going to sell him out. That immediately led into the Black Widow and one of her thugs taking the armor and capturing Vankov, and Vankov died while taking down the thug. Which also led into Black Widow being given her costume and additional gimmicks. (Originally she was just a sultry spy chick in an evening gown playing cat and mouse games with Tony Stark not a spandex clad femme fatalle. - If done today the 'original' Black Widow look would be more Spanx and a dress than spandex) Titanium Man was another Russian invention too, but with a more aggressive mission, make Iron Man look weak and beat him.

Now, from what I recall Justin Hammer was also a big time Stark rival - basically MORE of an enemy than Stane ever was - even though Stane broke the original SI and made a LOT of trouble - including selling off armor secrets to others which led to Tony and the 'Armor Wars'. So Hammer would be cool - since he employed A LOT of supervillans and the like over the years. Heck even his daughter created a lot of mayhem in the superhero community. So setting up Hammer NOW is good.

Whiplash could be goofy or cool, depending which route they go, but eh not my fave of his rogues gallery. Now if they bring in like Dreadknight, Blizzard, the Beatle - who WAS also a Stark employee - and a spider-man villan as well. That could be pretty cool

 

[LutherSloan]

This announcement made me wonder if Marvel isn't trying to set up The Mandarin to be the main villain in The Avengers down the road. Obviously the primary villain in The Avengers needs to be a pretty powerful threat, otherwise it would be kind of dumb for the most powerful superheroes on the planet to take on a B or C list villain.

Some of the people who read this story came out with the impression that Rourke is not going to play the Crimson Dynamo, but some other, similar villain.

I am hoping that including the Black Widow is going to tie in to the consequences of Stark revealing his identity and working with SHIELD. My guess is that she will be his liaison to SHIELD, who (might) turn out to be working for one of the villains, or The Mandarin.

 

[T'Baio]

Although why not just cast a Russian actor, with some star power and who can act?

Dolph Lundgren!

 

[Neroon]

Although why not just cast a Russian actor, with some star power and who can act?

Dolph Lundgren!

 

[Samurai8472]

Although why not just cast a Russian actor, with some star power and who can act?

Dolph Lundgren!

Elya Baskin!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0059946/

the landlord from Spider-man 2. Whenever there's a Russian role to be filled you call him!

 

[Neroon]

Oh please not him! He's played too many characters I liked, nice guys.

Ike Bykovsky in "October Sky"

Maxim Brajlovsky in "2010"

 

[Harvey]

Plus a likable recurring role on "Macgyver." Even his role as a terrorist in "Air Force One" was kind of likable!

I'd go for Armin-Muehler Stahl (probably misspelled that name), but he's perhaps too old.

 

[Nick Ryder]

Well that landlord guy would be a good fit if they brought in Dr. Anton Vanko the first Crimson Dynamo. He turned into a likable guy, so it would fit. And remember, Crimson Dynamo was the original thought behind the Iron Monger suit, before it became the Iron Monger suit. Even some of the key scenes had it between 'Iron Man and Crimson Dynamo' even if the CD thing was just a red herring, it was still a consideration of who the villan would be early on. Even in the documentaries on the dvd they say Crimson Dynamo at least once or twice.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Lundgren isn't Russian, of course.

 

[BenRoethig]

Sooooo, no Mandarin?

They would like to do it, but are having a lot of trouble finding a way to do the character in a way that is both semi-plausible and true to character.

 

[Thrall]

Sooooo, no Mandarin?

They would like to do it, but are having a lot of trouble finding a way to do the character in a way that is both semi-plausible and true to character.

Can't be that hard.

Ken Watanabe. Respected Chinese, Hong Kong businessman by day. Leader of terrorist groups and secret power behind most of the rogue, terrorist states by night. His terrorist nickname is "The Mandarin" kind of like "Carlos The Jackal". Created by The Chinese to destroy The West and capitalism in the 1970's, but went rogue and now wants to destroy both The West and The East. Radioactive Man is his personal bodyguard. His rings are based on Iron Man tech. If I can come up with something as basic as that, a great writer and filmmaker like Favreau should have no problem.

 

[Skywalker]

Sooooo, no Mandarin?

They would like to do it, but are having a lot of trouble finding a way to do the character in a way that is both semi-plausible and true to character.

Can't be that hard.

Ken Watanabe. Respected Chinese, Hong Kong businessman by day. Leader of terrorist groups and secret power behind most of the rogue, terrorist states by night. His terrorist nickname is "The Mandarin" kind of like "Carlos The Jackal". Created by The Chinese to destroy The West and capitalism in the 1970's, but went rogue and now wants to destroy both The West and The East. Radioactive Man is his personal bodyguard. His rings are based on Iron Man tech. If I can come up with something as basic as that, a great writer and filmmaker like Favreau should have no problem.

I like it, but I say Chow Yun-Fat instead of Watanabe. Chow is actually Chinese (not that it really matters), plus Watanabe already played a comic book villain (albeit a decoy) in Batman Begins.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

This announcement made me wonder if Marvel isn't trying to set up The Mandarin to be the main villain in The Avengers down the road. Obviously the primary villain in The Avengers needs to be a pretty powerful threat, otherwise it would be kind of dumb for the most powerful superheroes on the planet to take on a B or C list villain.

Some of the people who read this story came out with the impression that Rourke is not going to play the Crimson Dynamo, but some other, similar villain.

I am hoping that including the Black Widow is going to tie in to the consequences of Stark revealing his identity and working with SHIELD. My guess is that she will be his liaison to SHIELD, who (might) turn out to be working for one of the villains, or The Mandarin.

Personally, I'm hoping for Ultron in the Avengers movie.