MCU: 10 Fascinating Facts Behind Iron Man 3 (2013)
Who knew that JJ Abrams helped write it?
Jon Favreau might not have stuck around to make it and it might get a lot of criticism for messing with the Mandarin storyline from the comics, but Iron Man 3 is a genuinely great film. It reverses some of the bad moves of Iron Man 2, explores Tony Stark's PTSD in a sympathetic, clever way (that sets up the future ingeniously) and it's very charming in parts.
This was the film that gave us the Hulkbuster for the first time, which made Rhodey and Tony a real team (and believable friends for the first time) and made a superhero vulnerable in a way that the MCU hadn't explored to date. Sure, the Trevor Slattery twist is a little controversial, but there's no way they could have used the Mandarin as he was in the comics anyway. Not in 2013.
As we look ahead to Avengers: Endgame, we're looking back at the third film in Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man series...
10. The A Christmas Story Gag
You should all accept that Iron Man 3 is a Christmas movie, not just because it's set at Christmas and there are Christmas trees around, but because Shane Black made it. That's an automatic qualification right there.
There's also a major reference to one of the most famous Christmas movies of all time. At one point, Tony Stark signs an autograph for two kids and says that one of them looks like Ralphie Parker from A Christmas Story. It's not accidental - the actor who famously played Ralphie - Peter Billingsley - actually produced Iron Man and Iron Man 2 and had a brief cameo in the first movie.