Jon Favreau had a lot to reveal about Iron Man 2 at the San Diego Comic-Con, and not just the inclusion of War Machine. Favreau told MTV that the sequel is not simply a prelude to The Avengers.
We're working towards Avengers, but by the same token we want to resolve this film and make [Iron Man 2] play on its own. It's not a serial. It's a self-contained film. It's not building towards a cliffhanger that's the next movie. It's about wrapping up our story and making it a complete tale.
Favreau has confirmed that Iron Man 3 is in the works, and says the third movie may bring out a villain that would make Iron Man comic book fans very happy:
We're not feeling any pressure right now to rush to the whole Mandarin through-line. It's still intact. We're consistent with it. We know where it's going but I think audiences are pretty sophisticated.
Faran Tahir, who played a terrorist leader in Iron Man, has already said he might return for Iron Man 3 as either arch nemesis Mandarin or a "conduit" for the villain. Considering Favreau thinks the theme of the Iron Man movies is "an arms race," that makes Mandarin, and Tahir, a strong possibility for Iron Man 3.
For now, the villain is Mickey Rourke. Or Rourke and Sam Rockwell. Or Scarlett Johansson and Rourke and Rockwell. But definitely Rourke, who Favreau says will get a good amount of screen time:
With Mickey Rourke [as Whiplash], we definitely did want to have an origin story. We wanted that origin story to shadow and mirror Tony because he's introduced this technology into the world and how does that affect the world?
With Mickey, I didn't want to just have two guys in robot suits hitting each other again. I wanted to have a different type of villain that used the same technology, existed within the same framework and rules of our world, but that was going to present not just a challenge physically but also in how dark he was; how he's related to and how his fate and Tony's fate are connected.
Should Favreau move on to direct Iron Man 3 or The Avengers or both, they may take on a new look. Favreau claims to love the 3-D or IMAX formats and was even trying to convince Marvel to let him shoot Iron Man 2 in 3-D.