Confirmed: Favreau Won't Helm 'Iron Man 3'

Insiders close to Marvel and Robert Downey Jr, who has director approval on Iron Man 3, confirm that Jon Favreau won’t direct this next installment of the franchise. Granted there’s no script yet. And few helmers do what Sam Raimi (Spider-Man) and Gore Verbinski (Pirates Of The Caribbean) did: stick around for a trilogy. Favreau just wrapped Cowboys & Aliens and is about to embark on Disney’s Magic Kingdom and “is excited about the opportunity to go do his own thing” while Kevin Feige as the ultimate custodian of Marvel’s Iron Man franchise “sees it as an opportunity to bring some more fire to the franchise”. Favreau is still on board to exec produce The Avengers which Joss Whedon is directing. Favreau just negotiated a Disney development deal but the director had been expected to re-team with RDJr for the third Iron Man, one of the Marvel films bought out from Paramount so Disney could distribute. Vulture got there first.