With the recent Iron Man 3 casting announcements of Guy Pearce as a villain, Jessica Chastain as a sexy scientist, and Sir Ben Kingsley as another villain, it was thought that they would be joining returning cast members Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, and Scarlett Johansson.

Now it appears that Johansson and her Black Widow character will not be appearing in the trilogy-maker after all. In an interview with Screen Rant for upcoming Marvel superhero epic, The Avengers, the actress shared that she would not be part of that particular project. But she also made sure to clarify that this might not be the end of her run as the character; Johansson stated that she saw a Bourne Identity-style Black Widow movie in there somewhere that she’d love to do eventually.

Actress Jessica Chastain fired to stardom over the course of the past year with roles in Oscar winner The Help, Oscar nominee The Tree of Life, The Debt, and Take Shelter.

Now the actress is busier than ever having just completed work on Lawless with Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce, Tom Hardy, and Shia LaBeouf, Tar with James Franco, Mila Kunis, Zach Braff, and Bruce Campbell, another Terrence Malick film with Rachel McAdams, Benn Affleck, Michael Sheen, Rachel Weisz, Javier Bardem, Amanda Peet, and Barry Pepper, and a voice acting role in Madagascar 3.

She’s piling up more projects as well, with The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama Bin Laden project, titled Zero Dark Thirty, currently filming, and now it appears she could be joining Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man 3.

Almost two weeks ago we brought you the news that Oscar-winner Sir Ben Kingsley had been cast as the yet-to-be-named villain in next summer’s mighty Marvel superhero sequel Iron Man 3. Today another high-caliber acting talent has joined the movie’s increasingly impressive cast as Guy Pearce, most recently seen kicking interstellar ass in the sci-fi action flick Lockout, has signed on to play geneticist Dr. Aldrich Killian.

Killian was an integral character in “Extremis,” the six-issue Iron Man comic arc penned by Warren Ellis that is said to be the inspiration for Iron Man 3.

Marking the exit of Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau and the entrance of new director Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), it’s been wondered how much—if at all—things would be shaken up for trilogy-maker Iron Man 3.

We won’t really known the answer to this question until we start seeing goodies from the movie released, but today comes word of a potential villain for the film.

It’s being reported that the great Ben Kingsley has entered into negotiations to join the cast, and that if everything goes smoothly he would be playing the movie’s villain after Jeff Bridges’ and Mickey Rourke/Sam Rockwell’s turns in the first two installments.

It’s been a while since Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau announced that he would not be returning to direct Iron Man 3, leaving fans to wonder who would be chosen to try and continue the massive success of the franchise.

Recently there had been some rumblings that Marvel Studios was meeting with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director Shane Black to replace Favreau — a name almost everyone seemed to approve of. According to Deadline, all who approve can now celebrate, as it’s being reported that Black is in final negotiations for the job, which would be his first leap into the world of comic book movies.