Three new Iron Man 3 stills - all from the latest issue of Empire, details below - are now online, and you can check them out here.

Witness Rhodey and Tony looking like a Lethal Weapon-like duo (notice the Advanced Idea Mechanics T-shirt Tony's wearing), Pepper Potts looking absurdly beautiful (alongside Guy Pearce's ever-so-evil Aldrich Killian) and finally Mr. Stark hard at work at what looks like his toolshed. Nothing's quite as plot-revealing as the latest Iron Man 3 poster, admittedly, but they're all intriguing nonetheless.

Then there are the quotes from director Shane Black that have hit the web recently, originally from the French film magazine Premiere, that see the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director talking about Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and now Iron Man 3 serving as a whole trilogy, presumably all in some way connected to the Ten Rings.

“I have the feeling that the story that we have developed for Iron Man 3 actually concluded a trilogy, while [also] leaving the door open to a fourth," says Black. "I had a lot of discussions on this subject: 'Is that it is the last Iron Man for Robert?' Something tells me that it will not be the case, and will be seen in a fourth, or fifth... But I can be a little excited.”

Then there are some intriguing details as to how the award-winning writer worked with the original script scribbler on the project, Drew Pearce. Black explains how it all happened like this:

“When Marvel hires a director, the script of the film is generally already written. Except that they had someone who is a writer at the base. This was a problem at first, because they had already hired Drew Pearce to write Iron Man 3. I was like, 'But I do not need this Drew Pearce, what's the story?' (laughs)"

"Today I am not only a fan of Drew Pearce, but I've also become a friend of his. He came [to my] home everyday... brainstorming from morning to night. The script was really written for four hands. [It's an] excellent collaboration because they had already hired Drew Pearce to write.”

In case you didn't know already, Drew Pearce is the British writer behind the ITV2 sitcom No Heroics, a six episode series about a group of off-duty superheroes. That's right, one of the Iron Man 3 writers got their big break off ITV2. That is a fact. If you're curious, check out a trailer for the show here.

Iron Man 3 features Robert Downey Jr., Ben Kingsley, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, James Badge Dale and Jon Favreau. It’ll finally swagger into our cinemas on April 26. Our latest issue, meanwhile, is already on shelves now.