Rebecca Hall Confirms that Her Role was Cut Down for 'Iron Man 3'
Not that long ago, director Shane Black revealed that Dr. Maya Hansen, played by Rebecca Hall, was intended as the film's big bad. That idea, though, was rebutted by Marvel Studios executives, and it was scrapped.
Hall herself has confirmed that Black is correct, speaking with Postmedia Network on the "100% true" story. She went on to say that she's 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 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.
“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,” he said. “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...So, we had to change the entire script because of toy making.”
Marvel copped some serious backlash for it. “Look, (Marvel) is paying for their mistakes right now and I applaud them for casting Brie Larson in Captain Marvel. Hallelujah. It’s about time women started being the heroes of things.”
Source: Comicbook