Here’s another reason to give Iron Man 3 little mind: In speaking to Vulture, once-assumed star Guy Pearce compared his role — that of Aldrich Killian, a genetic scientist who invents helps invent a nanobot weapon, Extremis, which is put into the hands of the film’s villains — to the one he took up in Prometheus. Or, “cameo stuff.”

The actor further illustrated similarities by saying, in doing them, “you feel like a bit of an outsider,” not getting to experience the feeling of being present “all day every day with everybody”; instead, they’ll have one “just working in concentrated spurts.” When Shane Black can’t fit an Australian golden boy and make it work, the chips are off the table.

I only hope he doesn’t feel as extraneous to the proceedings as Peter Weyland did in Prometheus — something Pearce even acknowledges by saying “I guess in the end, they could have cast an older actor” — but one can’t sense much concern on the actor’s part. And, although it’s a let-down for me, personally, the work of Downey Jr., Paltrow, and even another newcomer, Rebecca Hall, should make the experience entirely painless. Maybe even fun.

Iron Man 3 will open on May 3rd, 2013. However, you can get more of Tony Stark in the theater this coming weekend, when Disney, in a desperate bid to turn a profit, roll out The Avengers once again to 1,700 theaters.

Is it disappointing to hear Pearce won’t do a ton of work in Iron Man 3?