Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man 3 was denied the chance to have a female villain due to Marvel’s sexism.

Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man 3 received praise for its performances, but there was one actress whom fans would have loved to see more. Godzilla x Kong actress Rebecca Hall played Maya Hansen in the film, who had nothing much to offer in the storyline of the film. Interestingly, Hall initially had a more meaty role in the film as a villain, however, the character was later decided to be killed off towards the beginning of the third act of the film.
Robert Downey Jr. and Rebecca Hall in Iron Man 3
Hall’s role was reduced midway through filming and it had a very sexist reason behind it. Earlier Marvel films also had the goal of selling toys for Marvel Entertainment. The then-boss of Marvel, Isaac Perlmutter, believed that Hall’s female villain would not sell many toys compared to male villains.

Godzilla x Kong Actress Rebecca Hall Was Humiliated In Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man 3

Rebecca Hall as Maya Hansen in Iron Man 3
Rebecca Hall is the star of the latest kaiju film in theaters, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. She plays Dr. Ilene Andrews in the franchise. Marvel fans are familiar with the actress from her role in Iron Man 3. Hall got her breakthrough role in Christopher Nolan‘s The Prestige and proved her acting chops in the film. However, her talent seems largely wasted in the MCU film.

When Hall appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016, she revealed that she had been gagging to talk about what happened with her Marvel role. She revealed that she had a substantial role to play in the original draft written by Shane Black and Drew Pearce.

However, she was informed halfway through filming that she would get shot out of nowhere. She also added that she was supposed to be in the film as a villainous character till the end. She shared (via Toronto Sun):

“I signed on to do something that was a substantial role. She wasn’t entirely the villain – 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…”

Rebecca Hall shared that she had some arguments with the filmmakers, before finally asking them for a decent death scene and one more scene with Iron Man. She received support from Robert Downey Jr. himself, which got her the current arc seen in the film. Hall shared:

“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.”

Rebecca Hall’s claims were backed by the film’s director Shane Black. If Black had his way, he would have made Hall’s character the main villain, instead of Aldrich Killian. He also revealed the reason why Hall’s role was reduced in the film.

Rebecca Hall’s Reduced Role Was A Result Of Marvel’s Sexism At The Time

Shane Black and Robert Downey Jr. on the sets of Iron Man 3
During an interview with Uproxx, Shane Black revealed that Rebecca Hall’s character was the main baddie in his initial draft until he was given a no-holds-barred memo. According to Marvel’s memo, Black could not make a female character the villain because it would affect the toy sales. Black had to change the entire script accordingly. Black shared with Uproxx:

“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.”

According to the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, Isaac Perlmutter resisted the decision to include Black Widow in the Avengers team and to make Hela the villain in Thor 2. Both decisions, along with Hall’s reduced role, reportedly came from the Marvel Creative Committee’s sexist notion that female characters did not make toy sales.