A bunch of panels took place in Comic Con over the weekend and few more crowd-pleasing than the obligatory Robery Downey Jr. appearance for the third Iron Man film - which is currently in production.

Downey Jr. was a surprise guest on the panel and came out to a rapturous reception from the amassed fans; he then wowed them with his typically acerbically tinted charisma. The actor said during the panel discussion, "We realised, at the beginning of Iron Man 2, Tony was dying, and then he had a party, and then he was drunk, and some people were going, "We don’t like him!" There’s a way to enjoy all of that shadowy stuff. We just kept thinking about, “What would it really be like, if this guy was in this country? Where else could he go in this country? What sorts of themes and backdrops could we explore?" If you look to the history of the films that Shane has written and directed, there’s a real desire for me, just as someone who loves the movies, to harken back to some of those themes, and they will occur in Iron Man 3." New helmer Shane Black was on hand with former shooter Jon Favreau also, and the former was very complimentary of his predecessor, who still appears in the movie; "What surprised me, frankly, was just how much generous help was available to me. That made it as easy as it could be. Jon Favreau was available to give me all kinds of tips and advice. He just made it like walking off of one platform, onto another and gave me the transitional feel that I needed."

We'll see the third film in the Iron Man series in May of 2013.