Tony Stark has some major issues in the Iron Man 3 Superbowl spot – the President’s plane has exploded and 14 people have been sucked out and are plummeting to the Earth. Only Iron Man can help them!

It certainly looks spectacular, but we’ll have to wait until the film’s May 3rd release to find out whether he succeeds in saving the falling folks (although I’d be willing to bet that he does). Take a look at the original 30 second spot above, with a longer version that was released on Facebook below.

Iron Man 3 pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds – Mandarin. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

While everyone loved The Avengers, it certainly had a different tone to the deliberately light and fun Iron Man movies. With the success of the superhero mash-up and a change of director for Iron Man 3 – along with a first trailer that was rather dark – many wondered if they were going to go more serious with this new movie.

However producer Kevin Feige has now suggested it’s going to stay relatively light. In an interview with the West Australian (via Coming Soon), he says, “It’s not a serious movie, but we seriously dig into exploring more of Tony. The trick is just trying to make great movies. We try to make them all great, all different and all fresh. What you’ll see in Iron Man 3 is some very unique directions that were taken.”

However The Avengers will have changed Tony Stars, with Fiege telling Empire (via Collider), “By the end of Avengers, when a portal is opened up in Manhattan and he’s met Thor and The Hulk and the Chitauri are coming down on him. he realizes that he doesn’t know everything; we think that has had an effect on his psyche, and then his world is blown out from underneath him.”

That said, don’t expect any other superheroes in this one, “Iron Man 3 doesn’t feature any of the other Avengers, or Nick Fury showing up, or any of those world-blending conceits that the Phase One films had. You have to keep in mind that Iron Man 3 had been in the works for almost a year, year and a half before The Avengers was released. We’re sticking to the vision for these films, and showing once again that these characters are just as interesting alone as they are together.”

Even so, don’t rule out some links to other movies, or at least hints as where Phase Two is heading. Iron Man 3 hits cinemas on April 26th, 2013.