FIRST LOOK: Iron Patriot Armor Spotted on the IRON MAN 3 Movie Set

The first batch of set photos from filming on the tthird installment of Marvel Studios' popular Iron Man in Wilmington, North Carolina, have hit the net and reveal the inclusion of a new armored comic book characters.

Iron Man 3 is directed by Shane Black and based off of a script by Drew Pierce. Robert Downy Jr. will once again reprise his role as billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (aka Iron Man); Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle are scheduled to return as Pepper Potts and Jim Rhoades (aka War Machine), respectively. Scarlett Johansson will be reprising her Avengers role as Black Widow. Sir Ben Kingsley has been tapped to play the film's central villain, who many have reported to be The Mandarin -- a megalomanic who secretly runs terrorist organizations around the world and wields ten weaponized rings of advanced alien power. Guy Pearce (Prometheus, Lockout) has been cast as geneticist Aldrich Killian. James Badge Dale (Shame, World War Z) will play a villain known as Savin. Ashley Hamilton has been cast as a villain called Firepower, the pilot of an experimental armored suit under the secret mission for the government who clashes with Iron Man.

Aside from principal photography taking place in North Carolina, a bulk of filming will go on in various area of China. Iron Man 3 is scheduled for theatrical release on May 3, 2013. No official synopsis has been released but it is now known that the film's plot revolves around the spread of a virus through nanobots, loosely based on Warren Ellis' six-issue "Extremis" series that introduced a new origin story for Iron Man and focused heavily on nanotechnology.

The first photos from the film's set have now hit the net and reveal yet another armored character added to the mix: The Iron Patriot. In Marvel Comics continuity, The Iron Patriot armor was worn by Norman Osborn, who took the technology from Stark Industries and his suit to represent the then-recently-deceased Captain America. It is doubtful that Osborn himself will appear in any Marvel Studios properties as the character's film rights are currently retained by Sony Pictures (along with their Spider-Man franchise). James Badge Dale can be seen wearing the suit of armor in the photos: