A few months back, it was revealed that Iron Man 3‘s villain was originally supposed to be a female Aldrich Killian. Speaking with Uproxx while promoting The Nice Guys back in May, director Shane Black stated that they were forced to change the sex of to a male for fear of the toy sales being negatively affected:

“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. So, we had to change the entire script because of toy making. Now, that’s not Feige. That’s Marvel corporate, but now you don’t have that problem anymore.”

That was a few months ago. Now, while promoting her new film Christine at the Toronto International Film Festival, actress Rebecca Hall (who played Maya Hansen, a villain-ish character in Iron Man 3) went one step further, talking about how her role seemed to increasingly diminish as time went on:

“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. Halfway through shooting they were basically like, ‘What would you think if you just got shot out of nowhere?’ I wasmeant to be in the movie until the end… 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.”

While Hall was likely burned by this experience, she seemed to be confident that they’re heading in the right direction.

“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. They can also be the anti-heroes of the things and that’s what I feel I’m getting to do with Christine.”

READ: BRIE LARSON EXCITED FOR HER CAPTAIN MARVEL TO BE A ROLE MODEL FOR YOUNG GIRLS

As time has gone on, I think big studios are becoming more and more aware that moviegoing audiences are actually half made up by females, and in the ever-challenging quest for the all-powerful dollar, they’re making adjustments to appeal to both sexes. 

What do you think of Hall’s comments? Do you think Iron Man 3 would’ve benefitted from a gender-swapped Aldrich Killian? Let us know in the comments down below!

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SOURCES: Uproxx, The Toronto Sun (via Slash Film)