While the Marvel Cinematic Universe hadn't really been faithful to the original source materials of its films, there isn't quite as unfaithful a film as Iron Man 3. There had been fan uproar when the film made a considerable change to the classic Iron Man villain The Mandarin. Apparently, Iron Man 3 director and screenwriter Shane Black isn't at fault.
In a recent interview with Uproxx, Black said his original script was to feature a female villain. However, Marvel scrapped the idea because the company thought it wouldn't rake in as much toy sales as a male villain. Black said Stéphanie Szostak' and Rebecca Hall, who played Brandt and Maya Hansen respectively in Iron Man 3, had larger roles in the movie originally. Black explained:
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. … So, we had to change the entire script because of toy making.
It seems like Shane Black doesn't know exactly who was responsible for the overall decision. However, the filmmaker was quick to clarify that current Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige had nothing to do with it.
At the time, Feige had no complete control over the MCU, unlike today. His boss back then was former Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter, who was later on outed in a Sony email hack as someone who isn't in favor of female-led superhero.
That said, it's hard to tell how Black's original version of Iron Man 3 could have been different since he didn't specify any further details about the former storyline. However, he did reference 80s television series Remington Steele with regard to how a woman in charge might look like. While a man seems to be sitting on the throne, a woman is actually the power behind it.
While this is unfortunate news for comic fans and women in general, it's worth noting that Feige's reign over Marvel seems to be working towards a more diverse direction. The Marvel President did recently comment on how the studio is now open to making a Black Widow franchise.
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