You only have to go back to December for another reminder of Hollywood’s continued archaic thinking when it comes women, franchises and merchandise. At the time, controversy arose when Daisy Ridley‘s Rey — the main character of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” — was left out of some toys and products for the blockbuster. “We know what sells. No boy wants to be given a product with a female character on it,” an insider was reportedly told at Lucasfilm meetings about the toy launch for ‘The Force Awakens.’ It underscores an industry trend that sees product lines developed with a male audience in mind foremost, with women and girls as potential customers perhaps not even considered. And under the Disney umbrella, another recent movie was adjusted due to such thinking.
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With “The Nice Guys” opening on Friday (our review), director Shane Black is doing the rounds and chatting with Uproxx, he reveals that Marvel forced him to change the gender of the villain Killian in “Iron Man 3.”
“All I’ll say is this, on the record: There was an early draft of ‘Iron Man 3’ where we had an inkling of a problem. Which is that we had a female character who was the villain in the draft. We had finished the script and we were given a no-holds-barred memo saying that cannot stand and we’ve changed our minds because, after consulting, we’ve decided that toy won’t sell as well if it’s a female,” he explained. “So, we had to change the entire script because of toy making. Now, that’s not [Kevin] Feige. That’s Marvel corporate, but now you don’t have that problem anymore.”
Oof. Not a great look for Marvel, and as Black hints, this might’ve been a decision at the level of former executive Ike Perlmutter, who is no longer involved with Marvel Studios. All this to say, Black had a somewhat rocky time making “Iron Man 3,” but through it all, has remained pals with Robert Downey Jr. And apparently, if and when “Iron Man 4” should ever happen, RDJ has a curious choice for who he’d like to direct.
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“I think he wants Mel Gibson to direct it. And for good reason. Mel was great to him. Mel’s been really nice to a lot of people, including me,” Black explained about the “Lethal Weapon” star. “I’ll go on record saying I don’t believe anyone should be held accountable in any way for something they say while they are drunk. It’s not who they are. I know this because I’ve said horrible things to people and made them feel bad. And it wasn’t who I was, I was just drunk. Mel’s a great guy and I understand his new directing project [‘Hacksaw Ridge‘] is actually quite interesting.”
Certainly, both Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. have been there for each other when they’ve both been at career low points, so it’s understandable if they can find something to do together, they would. But I highly doubt Marvel would touch the still quite controversial Mel Gibson with a 100 foot pole, even with the clout RDJ carries in the MCU. But it’s good to think about. Hey, if “Hacksaw Ridge” really is all that, and Gibson can really show he’s rehabilitated, I suppose stranger things have happened.