'Iron Man' Robert Downey Jr. Suffers On-Set Injury

Iron Man isn't so invincible after all.

Production on "Iron Man 3" has been "slightly delayed" after an accident on the set involving star Robert Downey Jr. Marvel Studios released a statement on Wednesday explaining that, "Robert Downey Jr. sustained an ankle injury on the set of 'Iron Man 3' in Wilmington, North Carolina while performing a stunt. There will be a short delay in the production schedule while he recuperates."

The movie is slated to hit theaters on May 3, 2013, and before the injury Downey told that there's a good reason he's taking his third spin as Tony Stark so seriously.

"The way to go about doing a [third film] is you have to find a way the first two aren't done yet," explained filmmaker Shane Black last month at Comic-Con, where he appeared with Downey, executive producer Kevin Feige and co-star Don Cheadle. "By the time you finish three, you want something resembling the culmination of a trilogy. I think we're finding ways of making this organic and new based on what's happened before ... Robert refers to it as leaving it all on the field. That's what we're aiming to do."

Downey said the trick this time is to really find ways to make Stark work in a shadowy story. "We realized at the beginning of 'Iron Man 2,' he's dying and he goes and has a party, so some [fans] didn't like him," admitted Downey. "There's a way to enjoy all that shadowy stuff. So we kept thinking about, 'What is it like if this guy is in this country? Where else could he go?'"