Last week, in the most exciting production development to hit the city since Dawson's Creek ended its run (just one man's opinion), the sequel began shooting in Wilmington, North Carolina.  Shortly after it was unofficially confirmed that the film will include the red, white, and blue Iron Patriot armor, which in the comics was worn by Spider-Man nemesis Norman Osborn, set photos hit the interwebs.  Those set photos appeared to answer the question of who is wearing the suit.

Starting somewhere way down the line, likely the photo agency that first disseminated the images, word was that James Badge Dale was the blurry dude in the pictures.  Since Mr. Blurry looked enough like the actor playing Eric Sevin aka Coldblood, nobody disagreed.  Now, however, it looks like just because the guy is caucasian doesn't mean he's James Badge Dale.  Latino Review is reporting that the man in the suit was not Dale, but was, in fact, a stuntman.

So who then we're back to that initial question of who is the Iron Patriot?  Apparently, it's not the Iron Patriot at all.  It's War Machine with a new paint job.  According to LR, Lieutenant Colonel James 'Rhodey' Rhodes is the character showing his patriotism with this suit, meaning that the Air Force implemented a more rah-rah color scheme to the gunmetal grey of Rhodey's commandeered Mark II armor.  So what appeared to be Iron Patriot is instead a more publicity-friendly War Machine, again played by Don Cheadle.

Makes sense.  This would mean that Dale's character is probably still more in line with what we put together so far: a solider injected with the experimental Extremis nanotechnology, turning him into a bad guy who is a match for Iron Man in the process.  Or at least that's what we're guessing based on the influence of Warren Ellis and Adi Granov's "Extremis" storyline, Guy Pearce's role as Dr. Aldrich Killian.

Speaking of Dr. Killian, some new set photos have popped up over at i09 showing an exterior bearing a sign for Advanced Idea Mechanics.  In the comics, criminal tech company AIM was responsible for creating the wonderfully ridiculous Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, M.O.D.O.K.  Don't expect to see that particular bad guy show up.  Instead, AIM is more likely a stand-in for the Futurepharm Corporation seen in "Extremis."

Note the Christmas tree over the left, indicated that the new Iron Man will be set at least partially around the holidays, unless AIM only shows up in a flashback.

Shane Black has some experience with an incongruous Christmas setting, having written Lethal Weapon.  Black makes his sophomore directorial feature here, reuniting with his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang star Downey Jr., who joins his franchise cohorts Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jon Favreau for another round of comic book shenanigans.  They're joined by Rebecca Hall, Guy Pearce, James Badge Dale, and Ben Kingsley, who may just be playing the nefarious Mandarin.

Iron Man 3 hits theaters on May 3, 2013.