The ‘Iron Man 3’ villain was originally female, but was changed because “the toy wouldn’t sell”

Shane Black, director of Iron Man 3, has said that Marvel made him and the co-writer of the superhero film create a totally new script - because the first one had a woman as the lead villain and the comic giant wanted a man instead.

Black made these (not entirely shocking) revelations in an interview with Uproxx, stating that studio execs nixed the script in the first instance because they were worried that the toy version of the villain wouldn't sell as well as a male antihero. The villain was then changed from a woman to Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian. "In the earlier draft, the woman was essentially Killian — and they didn't want a female Killian, they wanted a male Killian," Black said. Black elaborated: "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'." The villain was supposed to have been played by Rebecca Hall, whose part (Dr. Maya Hansen) was given an abrupt ending in the film for the extensive rewrites needed. Black is currently surfing a wave of positive reviews at the Cannes Film Festival for his latest film, The Nice Guys, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. [caption id="attachment_60159" align="aligncenter" width="3000"] Producer Joel Silver, director Shane Black, actors Ryan Gosling, Matt Bomer, Angourie Rice and Russell Crowe attend The Nice Guys premiere during the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images).[/caption]