Iron Man 3 will see the superhero "cut off" from The Avengers world. The comic book movie sees Robert Downey Jr. reprise his role as industrialist Tony Stark and his metal-clad alter-ego following the The Avengers film and the plot will see the hero having to survive on his own.

"Iron Man 3 has been structured specifically to be the antidote to The Avengers ... Circumstances in the story separate Tony from having access to anything. We wanted to take Tony back to, metaphorically speaking, the cave from Iron Man, the first half of Iron Man, when he's cut off from the world and needs just focus on his intellects to get himself out of his situation," Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige said, speaking in Empire magazine's latest podcast.

Kevin also revealed the other characters from The Avengers squad - which include Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) - will not feature in the sequel: "In the film he (Iron Man) is not calling Thor, he's not calling Captain America, he can't press a special button to have the helicarrier come rescue him, so I think that'll be a nice complement to the team up of The Avengers."

The movie is going to be based on the six-issue Extremis story arch - written by Warren Ellis - from the Marvel comic series. Iron Man 3 is to be directed by Shane Black and sees Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle reprise their roles as Pepper Potts and James Rhodes, respectively. It is scheduled for a May 2013 release.