Jon Favreau Wants Happy Hogan To Become The Freak In Iron Man 3

During the HeroComplex (via ComicBookMovie) film festival over the weekend there was a Q&A with Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. Robert was jokingly vocal about the biggest sticking point for Iron Man 3 being Jon Faverau's date rate to reprise Happy Hogan. Jon didn't sound opposed to the idea and wanted to see Happy exlpore his own impact on both Tony Stark and Iron Man. Hogan eventually marries Pepper and for a time becomes a villain known as The Freak.
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RDJ: Here’s the first thing I want to say. The most difficult part of making Iron Man 3 is going to be negotiating Jon Favreau’s acting deal.

Favreau: If The Freak isn’t in it, I’m not doing it. If Happy Hogan doesn’t turn into The Freak, I’m not doing it. Here’s what happens to Happy Hogan, he marries Pepper Potts…

RDJ: Wait a minute, you want both?

Favreau: I want a love scene with Pepper Potts with my shirt on and I want to transform into The Freak.

Favreau also revealed his thoughts on writer/director Shane Black continuing the franchise. Shane actually gave advise a few times in past to both Robert and Jon.

RDJ: - The negotiations have begun and so far I’m in agreement on every point. Well Shane, interestingly enough, there was a point when Jon and I were stuck on an idea [with a previous film]. We were just in an exploratory phase. So I said, ‘We should talk to Shane.’ And I was like, ‘Shane, we can’t really pay.’ And he was like, ‘Bring me some salmon and some blueberries.’ And we went to Yoda’s house in Miracle Mile and it wound up coming in handy, particularly for a couple scenes. So what I can say about this kind of circle of life thing is Shane, as he’s getting into the process [to direct Iron Man 3] and getting his sea legs and stuff, he goes, ‘When can we talk to Jon?’ So there’s going to be this kind of conglomerate of efforts.

 

Favreau: And I love the franchise and I’m a big fan of Shane’s as well so hopefully I can be helpful because I want to see this thing grow and transform. And actually, when it finally landed on Shane, it was like, ‘All right, that’s gonna be something interesting.’ Especially because it’s gonna be so difficult for whoever does that one because although it’s Iron Man 3, the whole Avengers thing…I guess in comics you can say that it’s an individual storyline and you can break it off into a group. But in movies, it’s hard not to take into consideration what just happened. What are you gonna say? ‘They all just lost their cell phones and you can’t get help?’ So it’s going to take a lot of ingenuity to make it make sense to a mainstream film audience as well as a comic book audience.