New ‘IRON MAN 3’ pic of Iron Patriot! Plus, the film is like totally not serious.

I wonder what sort of chuckle heads groaned and gnashed their teeth to prompt these new assurances about Iron Man 3‘s tone. Marvel Movie Czar Kevin Feige has come out and assured everyone that the movie is totally not serious. As though a serious movie would have been the equivalent of the studio bagging a fart and making us fans drink it deep. So don’t sweat, folks. This movie will be replete with the same haha-funny-time as the first two movies. Oh yeah! And if that information doesn’t give you a tingle, there is a new picture of Iron Patriot after the jump.

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Chatting with The West Australian (via Collider), Marvel honcho Kevin Feige spoke about the tone of upcoming sequel — which you might think was a depature given that dramatic first trailer — and revealed it won’t be overly filled with furrowed brows. “It’s not a serious movie, but we seriously dig into exploring more of Tony. The trick is just trying to make great movies. We try to make them all great, all different and all fresh,” he said. What you’ll see in ‘Iron Man 3’ is some very unique directions that were taken.”

However, don’t think they’re just going to follow the same old formula. “We’re not aiming for bigger, necessarily. We’re aiming for different and fresh and new,” director Shane Black said. “It’s all about capturing that lightning-in-a-bottle feel, about trying to get as much into this as we can. We’re looking to get a ton of thrills into a short space, to make a nice little stew for you.”

And part of that we guess ties into the Iron Patriot, as worn by Rhodey, with a fresh image in the pages of Empire (viaComicBookMovie). Much more to come with the movie not too far away, arriving on May 3, 2013.