Back when Iron Man 3 first went into production in North Carolina, some set photos showcased a version of the Iron Man armor painted red, white and blue in a manner that many comics fans would identify as being reminiscent of the Iron Patriot variation of Tony Stark’s Iron Man technology. The pictures were quickly explained away as merely a repainting of the War Machine armor used by Iron Man/Tony Stark’s friend Rhodey’s War Machine armor. But is that really all there is to that?
Bleeding Cool did some digging and came across evidence that Iron Patriot may be showing up in Iron Man 3 by name. They discovered a new filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office where the Studio requests trademark protection for the name Iron Patriot for use in “Paper and paper articles; cardboard and cardboard articles; printed matter; publications; books; photographs; portraits; paintings; stationery; office and school supplies” among other things.
In the comics, Iron Patriot is actually a public identity Norman Osborn adopted as one of a series of bids to gain political power in recent years in the Marvel Comics universe. Of course, the rights to Osborn’s character are firmly in the Spider-Man film rights package at Sony, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the spin on the concept for Iron Man 3 is that the US government was attempting to re-brand the War Machine armor into something a bit more public relations friendly.
While it is not conclusive evidence, filings such as these and internet domain registrations have become a pretty good way of sussing out what studios may be up to with certain properties. It was through an internet domain registration that we learned what would become the subtitle for the second of the three Hobbit films weeks before it was officially announced. Will this play out in a similar manner? We’ll see when Iron Man 3 hits theaters next May.
