Iron Man 3: Rebecca Hall clarifies why Marvel reduced her role

'I signed on to do something that was a substantial role'

Upon the release of the rather fantastic The Nice Guys, Shane Black spoke candidly about his time working on Marvel’s Iron Man 3, revealing that the film’s original villain was a female.

According to the director, the villain - who was going to be played by Rebecca Hall - was cut due to Marvel not believing a female toy would sell.

While promoting her new film at Toronto Film Festival, Hall explained how it was “100% sure” and that she had been “gagging to talk about it with someone, but I haven’t had the opportunity, weirdly.”

“I signed on to do something that was a substantial role,” she told the audience according to The Toronto Sun. “She wasn’t entirely the villain – there have been several phases of this – but I signed on to do something very different to what I ended up doing.

“Halfway through shooting they were basically like, ‘What would you think if you just got shot out of nowhere?’ I was meant to be in the movie until the end... I grappled with them for awhile and then I said, ‘Well, you have to give me a decent death scene and you have to give me one more scene with Iron Man,’ which Robert Downey Jr. supported me on.”

Marvel has often been criticised for not having a leading female superhero, something that is set to change with the release of Captain Marvel.

“Look, (Marvel) is paying for their mistakes right now,” she added, “and I applaud them for casting Brie Larson in Captain Marvel. Hallelujah. It’s about time women started being the heroes of things. They can also be the anti-heroes of the things and that’s what I feel I’m getting to do with Christine.”

Meanwhile, Thor: Ragnarok will feature a female villain: Cate Blanchett is set to star as the villain Hella.