'Iron Man 3' originally had a female villain until execs said the toy wouldn't sell

Disney / Marvel

Hollywood's ongoing sexism problem, particularly in the comics world, has been brought back into the spotlight again after comments from "Iron Man 3" director, Shane Black.  

The screenwriter behind action classic "Lethal Weapon," Black spoke with Uproxx about "Iron Man 3" and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He revealed that the original draft of the film had a leading female villain; however, Marvel executives told Black to swap the main villain's gender to male in order to increase toy sales. 

Here's the full exchange via Uproxx: 

[Shane Black:] All I’ll say is this, on the record: There was an early draft of Iron Man 3 where we had an inkling of a problem. Which is that we had a female character who was the villain in the draft. We had finished the script and we were given a no-holds-barred memo saying that cannot stand and we’ve changed our minds because, after consulting, we’ve decided that toy won’t sell as well if it’s a female.

[Uproxx:] What?

[Shane Black:] So, we had to change the entire script because of toy making. Now, that’s not Feige. That’s Marvel corporate, but now you don’t have that problem anymore.

Uproxx:] Ike Perlmutter is gone.

[Shane Black:] Yeah, Ike’s gone. But New York called and said, “That’s money out of our bank.” In the earlier draft, the woman was essentially Killian – and they didn’t want a female Killian, they wanted a male Killian. I liked the idea, like Remington Steele, you think it’s the man but at the end, the woman has been running the whole show. They just said, “no way.”

Ultimately, Guy Pearce's character, Aldrich Killian, became the film's big bad and Rebecca Hall's character, Maya Hansen, dies about 3/4 of the way through the film. Black doesn't point the finger at any specific party, saying only "Marvel corporate" was behind the change and Marvel Studio president, Kevin Feige (a producer on the film), wasn't to blame. Ike Perlmutter is still acting CEO of Marvel Entertainment, but Feige now reports directly to Disney, which owns Marvel Studios, during the filmmaking process.

Disney / MarvelMarvel has received criticism for its treatment of female characters before. "Avengers: Age of Ultron" director Joss Whedon was also targeted for his treatment of Scarlett Johansson's character, Black Widow. Disney, which also owns Lucasfilm, faced PR woes last December when online campaigns lambasted the company for not including toy versions of Rey, the leading female character of the latest "Star Wars" film. 

In the meantime, "Captain America: Civil War" directors Joe and Anthony Russo say they have "emotionally and creatively" committed to a Black Widow film in the future. The very first female-led Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, "Captain Marvel," is due for release March 8, 2019.

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