Talking to
The Huffington Post, Kevin Feige has revealed the difficult position Marvel Studios found themselves in after getting Tony Stark to cameo at the conclusion of
The Incredible Hulk. The scene appeared to indicate the
The Avengers would have featured the team going after the Hulk (a possibility as Zak Penn was then working on a script before Joss Whedon came in and rewrote it).
"The truth of the matter is, we were very concerned about painting ourselves into a corner -- and didn't do it. And if we found a fork in the road and had a really cool idea, one of which paints us into a corner and one of which would just progress the story we need to tell the movie, we always went in the direction of telling the story we needed to tell. I will say that the Tony Stark cameo in "The Incredible Hulk" required us to [laughs] get ourselves out of a corner," he revealed.
"We do not follow up on that scene in the narrative in any of the subsequent features. But, for fans, which are really the only people going, "Hey, wait a minute. What about when Tony Stark walked into the room and talked to General Ross?" There's a short film on the "Captain America" DVD that wraps that up and explains that. So, all the dots are connected and most of them didn't paint us into a corner. But I would say that is probably the closest one that almost did."
As for the recent rumours that Ben Kingsley is in talks to play
Iron Man 3's villain, the Marvel Studios president remained vague.
"There are rumors online that we're in negotiations with Ben Kingsley. Marvel doesn't confirm any of our casting until it's all completely done. And, even at that point, not talking about the characters is something ... I love that there's a "Star Trek" movie in production right now and I have no idea who the new characters are or who the villains are. I would love to be able to follow that mold for the next few movies that we make."