Cue the Black Sabbath music and put on your rocket boots. Entertainment weekly has released some information on the highly anticipated sequel, including the first picture of Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.
The new movie features three new Iron Man characters to the movie universe. Natasha Romanoff, also known as the Russian super-spy Black Widow, as portrayed by Scarlett Johansson. Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko, a Russian criminal who makes his own battle suit while in jail. Finally is Justin Hammer, a weapons manufacturer who thinks of himself as the new Tony Stark, played by Sam Rockwell.
Let’s start with the Black Widow. Natasha joins the cast taking over Pepper Potts'(Played by Gwyneth Paltrow) position in Stark International as Stark’s new assistant. Potts herself is now the CEO of Stark, likely due to Tony choosing to reveal himself as Iron Man and remove himself from the position to focus on his new “job”.
Ivan Vanko is a scientist who, presumably, has broken out of jail with his battle suit. The picture we’ve been shown(seen above) shows a very bare-bones battle suit. The most interesting part is what’s at the center of it, which appears to be an arc reactor. Either Vanko made his own, or bought it off the black market. Either is a case that could be the center of the story, of Stark trying to stop his Iron Man suit from getting into dangerous hands.
The important thing to note here is that Natasha comes into play around the same time as Vanko. Which suggests that she is indeed a spy, and knows more about Vanko and his Whiplash suit. I’m also expecting more from the suit, considering the character Roarke is playing is known as Stark’s other major foe, the Crimson Dynamo.
Justin Hammer isn’t a huge villain. He doesn’t have any super suit or special skills, just a lot of money. More than anything he’s a nuisance to Stark, but that might be his main reason for being in the movie. Stark is known to be the Iron Man, he loses to Vanko. Hammer wants to make sure stark is no longer an issue, so he gives the only person to defeat Iron Man the money and resources he needs to defeat Iron Man.
The rather strange thing here is the casting. Hammer is always portrayed as an elderly man. Sam Rockwell is not elderly. He’s not young, but him and Robert Downey Jr. are pretty close in age. It doesn’t mean much, but it’s a semi interesting choice.
I expect that this is just the start of what we’re going to see this week, with a huge flood of news coming out this weekend at Comic-Con. Perhaps we’ll finally see War Machine, or a new Iron Man suit.
I’d like to take the time to mention something: Sega is making Iron Man 2 and will reveal it at Comic Con 09!