Ashley Hamilton is, according to Variety, up for a small villain role as the Marvel Comics character Firepower in Shane Black's Iron Man 3. Meanwhile, Jon Favreau has tweeted the below visual confirmation that, while he won't be back in the director's chair this time around, Happy Hogan will again be seen in front of the camera.

A relative unknown, Hamilton regularly appeared on the television series "Sunset Beach" and played a villainous role in 1993's Beethoven's 2nd.

Though he's been seen in various alternate iterations over the years, Firepower first appeared in "Iron Man" #230 in 1988, and is an experimental suit piloted by Jack Taggert. The character recently appeared in issue #513, enlisted by the Mandarin and Zeke Stane (the son of Obadiah Stane, played by Jeff Bridges in the first film) to destroy Tony Stark.

The third installment starts filming this month in North Carolina and stars Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley, Rebecca Hall and James Badge Dale. Black will direct from a script he co-wrote with Drew Pearce.

Iron Man 3 will hit theaters on May 3, 2013.


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