In the latest Empire Podcast – that'll be Empire Podcast #9, for anyone counting – Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige had a few words to say about the cinematic Marvel universe.

Specifically, he talked about the renaming of Avengers to Avengers Assemble in the UK, the long-gestating plan to create this superb superhero mash-up and what we can expect in Iron Man 3.

It's these words on Iron Man 3 that we'd like to bring to your attention in particular here – and to make your life easier, here's what he said on the topic transcribed for you below, and after that, the podcast itself (you'll want to jump to around 24.25, by the way).

Needless to say, if you don't want to know anything about what's happening after Avengers Assemble, you best click away now.

"So 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."

"So he's 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 Avengers."

Now this is interesting for a number of reasons. Fans of the Warren Ellis' Iron Man: Extremis six-issue run in the comics themselves will be able to draw their own conclusions as to how director Shane Black might go about removing Tony from the rest of the Avenging world, but even those who aren't au fait with everything Marvel should be pleased at this change of pace – or not, as the case may be.

Whatever the weather, it's very interesting stuff – and for more very interesting stuff, listen to the whole podcast below, and, of course, subscribe to us on iTunes or use our RSS feed to keep up to date.

And don't forget, we'll have a special, spoiler-filled Kevin Feige podcast for you to enjoy next week, so once you've watched Avengers Assemble, be sure to come back for more intriguing titbits.

And for information on Thor 2, however, might we point you in the direction of our interview with Tom Hiddleston here, where he talks about just that movie.