What To Expect — And Not To Expect — From Iron Man 2

Iron Man director Jon Favreau gave a lot of insight into what comic-book villains and storylines you might see in the second chapter of the Tony Stark saga. And they're not necessarily the ones you'd expect. Meanwhile, we have a sneak peek at next week's Heroes, plus a glimpse of next spring's "Fugitives" storyline. There are some no-duh spoilers for Terminator Salvation, plus some interesting tidbits about Blindness, City Of Ember, Splinter and The Burrowers. We also have a bunch of looks ahead on Smallville, plus spoilers and pics for Lost, Dollhouse, Chuck and Battlestar Galactica. Spoilers are electric!

Iron Man 2:

In a web chat with Los Angeles Times readers, Jon Favreau gave some pretty major hints about the sequel to this past summer's second biggest superhero movie. Don't count on seeing the Mandarin leap into action in the second movie at all — Favreau hinted that the writers were experimenting with trying different villains from the comics. Asked whether he'd consider a female villain, like Madam Masque, Favreau strongly hinted that he'd like a female villain. (Maybe Black Widow, before she turns good? Please say yes!)

Also, Favreau said they'd developed an "interesting take" on the Mandarin "that allows us to incorporate a whole pantheon of villains. The whole 10 Rings thing in [the first film] was a good tease for it." (So the Mandarin has other supervillains working for him? Or each villain is one ring?)

Also, the second film will deal with how Tony Stark's already out-of-control celebrity is affected by his "coming out" as Iron Man at the end of the first movie. And Favreau wants to deal with Tony's alcoholism, but not necessarily build a whole storyline around it. "I don't think we'll ever do the Leaving Las Vegas version, but it will be dealt with." And of course, he mentioned that the second Iron Man movie leads into the Avengers movie. [IGN]

Terminator Salvation:

I don't think this is actually news, but Common say his character in Terminator 4 is a resistance fighter who fights alongside John Connor. [MTV]

Blindness:

In the movie version of Jose Saramago's novel, opening Friday, the Doctor's Wife wonders if the inexplicable blindness is somehow linked to a loss of faith, to losing one's way spiritually. Much is made of the irony of the pharmacist's assistant sitting near the sex worker he insulted, and the car thief with the man whose car he stole. (The car thief plot is pretty close to the book, actually.) [Orlando Sentinel]

City Of Ember:

Coming Soon has more details on the amazing sets built for this movie, which sound like reason enough to see it on their own. There are greenhouses, and vegetables are sold in Garden Square, and a phone booth has been turned into a messenger center where you can leave a message to be picked up. Doon's father fixes up failing bits of technology, and has built a fantastic breakfast machine. [Coming Soon]

Splinter:

More details about the weird parasite movie we covered the other day. There's a prickly parasite that infects a host, either a forest creature or a human, and then spreads throughout the body until the host suddenly transforms into a "violent, abstract" monster. Three young people are trapped in a remote gas station trying to get away from the creature that has trapped them inside. There's a scene where they're searching through the gas station that's a direct homage to the lab-search scene in Alien. And you have a horrible moment where someone realizes they're infected but they haven't yet turned into a monster. The parasite victims don't have a long lifespan before they go "dormant." [Shocktillyoudrop]

The Burrowers:

And here's a poster for the Western horror movie about cowboys facing a subterranean threat. [Shocktillyoudrop]

Lost:

According to Michael Emerson, Ben's mission and methods have changed somewhat since the last time we saw him. He has different resources, and he moves around a lot. And as you'd heard, Ben and Desmond will be meeting up soon. [TV Guide]

As you've probably gathered, Ben wants to kill Widmore's daughter in revenge for the death of his own daughter. [LylyFord]

Heroes:

Molly the little superpower-detecting girl will be turning up in a "unique" way in a couple of episodes later this season. We'll learn more about how Sylar's power works, and also the ins and outs of Mohinder's adrenaline hypothesis. We'll see Nathan's wife and kids again. Claire, Adam, Peter and Sylar can all be killed permanently by decapitation. (I'm picturing the four of them lined up, and someone grabs a very large scythe.) Sylar has to start over gaining powers, because he lost all his old ones in season two. Sparrow Redhouse may appear in episode 12, or a bit later. [Heroes News And Spoilers]

And here's a sneak peek from next Monday's Heroes where it turns out superpowers really are an aphrodisiac. [NBC via SpoilerTV]

Meanwhile, producer Jesse Alexander posted a storyboard from the first episode of volume four, "Fugitives," which airs next spring. Looks like Nathan is stalking someone at an aircraft hangar, and watching a plane take off. [Heroes Spoilers]

Battlestar Galactica:

Discover Magazine has a great rundown of all the reasons why the rumor that there's another Earth out there besides the one our heroes just found is probably bunk. [Discover]

Dollhouse:

Here are a couple of promo pics of Echo and Sierra, two of the mindwiped "Actives" in Joss Whedon's new programmable puppet series. [SpoilerTV]

Chuck:

Here's the press release describing the Oct. 27 episode of Chuck, "Chuck vs. Tom Sawyer":

Life in espionage takes its toll on Chuck (Zachary Levi) and everyone is taking notice. Chuck tries to explain his unusual behavior to Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and to the quirky Buy More efficiency expert Emmett Milbarge (guest star Tony Hale), but a new assignment only complicates things. After a global terrorist comes searching for Jeff (Scott Krinsky), Chuck is forced to socialize with Jeff in order to find out what role the oddball plays in the mission. Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski), Casey (Adam Baldwin) and Chuck are all shocked when they discover that the fate of the world and the prevention of World War III rest in Jeff’s hands.

[SpoilerTV]

Smallville:

So that flashback we mentioned, where Young Clark invites Young Chloe up to his hayloft? Turns out there's a kiss involved. And the actress playing Young Chloe wears some kind of Chloe wig. Sounds great! [TV Guide]

And here's the Canadian trailer for "Toxic," tonight's sick-Ollie episode:

Want to know what's coming up for Oliver Queen? Maybe this will help. [Superman Homepage]

Additional reporting by Lauren Davis.

Send an email to Charlie Jane Anders, the author of this post, at charliejane@io9.com.

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