If You’re Confused About Extremis, It’s Time To Revisit ‘Iron Man 3’

During the second episode of Secret Invasion, titled “Promises,” G’iah (Emilia Clarke) is looking through a computer to see about these “creatures” that some Skrull scientists were talking about. One of those “creatures” is labeled as Extremis, an important part of Marvel lore. The thing is, if you’re not overly familiar with Tony Stark’s story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you might not remember where Extremis started.

Introduced in Iron Man 3, Extremis was the creation of Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) and Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). Using nanotechnology, the idea is that a human with Extremis can heal and regenerate after an injury; it can also even heal psychological damage. Using Extremis isn’t easy, though, and many who try end up dying before they bond with it. One of the few who successfully used Extremis was its co-creator Killian, who was Tony’s villain in Iron Man 3. While a lot of Iron Man 3 was about Tony’s growth as a hero and his mental health, we also got to see a lot of what Extremis could do.

Extremis has since been littered throughout the Marvel world and reappears from time to time. Daisy Johnson on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had her brush with it (along with other characters), and we saw as Pepper Potts had to be “stabilized” after her own encounter. It is interesting that it’s making a reappearance now in Secret Invasion because there are two connections back to this: The Tony Stark world that we’ve left behind after Avengers: Endgame and the rumored return of Chloe Bennet as Daisy/Quake in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Could this Extremis shout-out mean we’ll go back to either of these characters? Or is it just a callback?

Happy to force people to watch Iron Man 3, a good movie

Iron Man 3 often gets unfairly shafted when discussing the best Marvel movies. It is the third in the Iron Man franchise starring Robert Downey Jr. and is the only one directed by Shane Black, who had previously directed Downey in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Iron Man 3 is a Christmas movie, and one that shows the darker side of being a superhero and the struggle that these characters have with their place in this heroic world.

The creation of Extremis was personal to Tony because he helped fund both Killian and Hansen. Now, having Extremis pop up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe without Tony—and in one where Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts is not really involved anymore—is definitely interesting. Personally, I do think this might be a way of bringing in Daisy Johnson, but it also gives me a reason to tell everyone that Iron Man 3 actually is a great movie. And if you want to learn more about how Extremis works, you can listen to Aldrich Killian lecture Tony Stark about it.

Simply put: Extremis is a bit of nanotech that is supposed to help you heal but also increases your body temperature and doesn’t always pair well with people. So … hopefully the show doesn’t use it as a weapon.

(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)