Jon Favreau Reminds Us Why We’re Very Worried About ‘Iron Man 3′

There are reasons to be concerned about "Iron Man 3." Jon Favreau, the director of the first two installments, won't be on board for the new film. Shane Black, who will be directing "3," has never done a movie this huge. Plus, as of a couple months ago, it seemed like the series was going to go in a very different, more realistic direction. That's more than enough, right? Well, over the weekend Favreau inadvertently threw a couple more logs on the fire.

At the Hero Complex Film Festival on Sunday, Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. were on hand for a screening of "Iron Man," and Favreau talked about the fact that Black and Downey Jr. had sought his feedback for "Iron Man 3." Favreau was happy to lend a hand, although he's now focused on other projects:

"I love the franchise and I'm a big fan of Shane's as well so hopefully I can be helpful because I want to see this thing grow and transform. And actually, when it finally landed on Shane, it was like, 'All right, that's gonna be something interesting.' Especially because it's gonna be so difficult for whoever does that one because although it's 'Iron Man 3,' the whole Avengers thing...I guess in comics you can say that it's an individual storyline and you can break it off into a group. But in movies, it's hard not to take into consideration what just happened. What are you gonna say? 'They all just lost their cell phones and you can't get help?' So it's going to take a lot of ingenuity to make it make sense to a mainstream film audience as well as a comic book audience."

This was done amidst a bunch of happy-talk "We're all friends" conversation, but it's funny that (intentionally or not), Favreau points out two problems "Iron Man 3" will have to contend with. The first is that Black will have to make his movie around whatever happens in "The Avengers." This was something that was bugging Favreau even last year when we all assumed he'd be directing "Iron Man 3." Essentially, Black will have to build a story that doesn't just pick up where "Iron Man 2" left off but also fits with whatever happens in "The Avengers."

Plus, Favreau brought up what shall now be called "the cell phone problem." If Tony Stark is buddies with all the Avengers, why don't they help him out in "Iron Man 3"? And it brings to mind something that had never occured to us: After watching an Avengers movie, will an "Iron Man 3" (or a "Thor 2") be interesting enough for audiences since it will have just one superhero? We really hope Marvel knows what they're doing with all these movies. No wonder Favreau was happy to offer advice to Black: He's probably just thrilled that it's not his headache anymore.

Robert Downey Jr. And Jon Favreau Talk 'Iron Man 3' Difficulties, Plus 'The Avengers' [/film]