Posted by: Lisa

26 Jul 2009

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According to EW, Scarlett did make an appearance at Comic-Con.

“Nobody cared about Iron Man until we came here,” said director Jon Favreau, returning to Comic-Con to offer a packed and amped-up crowd in Hall H an advance taste of Iron Man 2. (The hall was so crowded, even Marvel executives had difficulty getting in.) Favreau was joined on the stage by stars Robert Downey Jr. (who plays Tony Stark/Iron Man), Sam Rockwell (who plays sleazy arms merchant Justin Hammer), Don Cheadle (taking over the role of Jim Rhodes from Terence Howard), and Scarlett Johansson (who plays Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow — and who drew audible gasps from the audience.)

Favreau kicked things off with a deliberately cheesy-looking introduction that looked like a low-budget marketing clip. “What was that unadulterated garbage?!” Downey asked, feigning outrage. “This is bulls—, dude! You showed me better stuff in the edit room!”

Then, after a pause to acknowledge Favreau’s son’s 8th birthday with a mass sing-a-long of “Happy Birthday,” the real footage began. Fans saw about five minutes of clips, including Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury finding Iron Man eating donuts; Garry Shandling as a senator; Cheadle as Rhodey transformed into War Machine (a clip that the crowd went particularly wild for — and that was shown twice at Cheadle’s request); Johannson as Black Widow; and Mickey Rourke as new baddie Ivan Vanko/Whiplash, complete with deadly lightning whips.

Though Johannson (who replaced Emily Blunt) joked that her audition for the film consisted of “a couple of deep knee bends and lunges,” she drew praise from Favreau: “All the fighting and wire work is her own. She worked really hard and it shows on the screen.”

I’m checking my sources and will have pics up just as soon as they become available.

Filed under: 'Iron Man 2', Public Events