Shane Black, the director of Iron Man 3, was recently interviewed by Uproxx. The interview was initially meant to be regarding his new upcoming film, The Nice Guys, but he also aired his grievances concerning the use (or lack thereof) of female characters in Iron Man 3.
He was frustrated with the executive decisions that had been made resulting in reduced roles for many of the female characters, including the roles of Maya Hanses (Rebecca Hall) and Brandt (Stephanie Szostak) as well as another main female villain who was completely cut from the film.
Mr. Black was quoted as saying, “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.”
When Marvel’s CEO, Ike Perlmutter, had some emails leaked in 2014, it was revealed that he blatantly was against making superhero movies with female leads, not necessarily because of inherently sexist motivations, but because he believed they were unprofitable. It’s no secret that the majority of superheroes in the well-known films and comic books are male, and now at least part of the reason behind that has been revealed through Shane Black’s interview.
