Two huge casting updates coming your way for the upcoming Iron Man sequel. First up is Mickey Rourke, who continues to land roles left and right. Rourke will play the film's villain, though which villain might still be under debate. Sam Rockwell has been picked up to play not exactly a villain, but a competitor to Tony Stark.
Rourke and Rockwell for Iron Man Sequel
According to THR, Mickey Rourke has been picked up to play a tattooed Russian heavy named Ivan who becomes Whiplash, a man with deadly, technologically enhanced coils. I've never heard of the character, but here's a brief description of him as provided by Marvel:
Mark Scarlotti was a brilliant engineer and weapons designer that had expert fighting skills with a whip and nunchakus. He was also a moderate hand-to-hand combatant.
The only problem is that Marvel claims that Whiplash's original name was Mark Scarlotti (as shown above). Variety confirms that Rourke will be playing, "a villain described as Tony Stark's Russian alter ego, a heavily tattooed bruiser who is in the arms trade and battles Iron Man in his own nuclear-powered armored suit." The only catch is they can only hint that his character will be Crimson Dynamo. Who is Crimson Dynamo? Hard to say, considering that Marvel claims there were at least three different people who shared that title.
For now, let's just conclude that Rourke will be playing a villain who is a heavy bruiser.
Sam Rockwell, on the other hand, is a bit more exact. He has been cast to play Justin Hammer, a multibillionaire businessman and a rival of industrialist Tony Stark. Hammer was known for a nasty habit of repeatedly hiring a group called Death Squad to assassinate Tony Stark (and Iron Man). When they failed, Hammer went on to enlist the help of Blacklash.
Now here's where things come together. Blacklash is also known as Whiplash. So can we assume that Rourke is playing Whiplash? Intuition says yes, though Blacklash wasn't exactly a bruiser.
Add to Heffee!
