In "Iron Man," Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) had their hands full with Jeff Bridges' villainous businessman Obadiah Stane. Still, director Jon Favreau is confident that the triumvirate of villains featured in "Iron Man 2" — Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) and possibly Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) — will be able to avoid the problems that plagued previous superhero movies featuring multiple villains.
"You want to be sure you don't suffer from multi-villainitis," Favreau told The Los Angeles Times. "That's been the downfall of many other superhero franchises."
"I was more concerned about the interpersonal dynamic and how the presence of [Johansson's character] would affect Tony and Pepper," continued Favreau. "Because what I didn't want to do is make this film episodic, like just another episode of a TV series."
"So one way to approach that is to shift the dynamic with the introduction of new characters." he added. "So you have Justin Hammer inserted into the Tony-Rhodey relationship, and you have Natasha Romanoff inserted into the Tony-Pepper relationship."
"When done right, a superhero movie has the character's personal life mirroring what's happening in their superhero world," said Favreau. "And sometimes you have to force things to do it. In this case, I'd say, we found an organic way to do it. We wanted both A-story and B-story to be affected by these new characters."
With the release date only a few weeks away, the "Iron Man 2" promotions have kicked into high gear. Earlier this week, a new viral website launched around the Haztech Exoskeleton and Tony Stark recorded a message for the Stark Expo 2010 site. Two new "Iron Man 2" TV spots also made their debut this week.
"Iron Man 2" flies into theaters on May 7.
Do you think that "Iron Man 2" will be able to effectively handle multiple villains? If the film had to focus on a single villain, which one would you prefer? Let us know what you're thinking in the comment section or on Twitter!