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Iron Man 3: Rebecca Hall clarifies why Marvel reduced her role

'I signed on to do something that was a substantial role'

Jack Shepherd
Thursday 15 September 2016 10:05 EDT
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Upon the release of the rather fantastic The Nice Guys, Shane Black spoke candidly about his time working on Marvel’s Iron Man 3, revealing that the film’s original villain was a female.

According to the director, the villain - who was going to be played by Rebecca Hall - was cut due to Marvel not believing a female toy would sell.

While promoting her new film at Toronto Film Festival, Hall explained how it was “100% sure” and that she had been “gagging to talk about it with someone, but I haven’t had the opportunity, weirdly.”

“I signed on to do something that was a substantial role,” she told the audience according to The Toronto Sun. “She wasn’t entirely the villain – there have been several phases of this – but I signed on to do something very different to what I ended up doing.

“Halfway through shooting they were basically like, ‘What would you think if you just got shot out of nowhere?’ I was meant to be in the movie until the end... I grappled with them for awhile and then I said, ‘Well, you have to give me a decent death scene and you have to give me one more scene with Iron Man,’ which Robert Downey Jr. supported me on.”

Marvel has often been criticised for not having a leading female superhero, something that is set to change with the release of Captain Marvel.

“Look, (Marvel) is paying for their mistakes right now,” she added, “and I applaud them for casting Brie Larson in Captain Marvel. Hallelujah. It’s about time women started being the heroes of things. They can also be the anti-heroes of the things and that’s what I feel I’m getting to do with Christine.”

Meanwhile, Thor: Ragnarok will feature a female villain: Cate Blanchett is set to star as the villain Hella.

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