
Film producer and President of Production over at Marvel,
Kevin Feige, had to say something about recent comments regarding the seriousness of
Iron Man 3.
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.
Feige also talked about the challenges in bringing the villainous Mandarin to the screen:
Early – and very late – drafts of Iron Man 1 featured The Mandarin as a villain. The Mandarin is his most famous foe in the comics mainly because he's been around the longest. If you look, there's not necessarily a definitive Mandarin storyline in the comics. So it was really about having an idea. In terms of the Fu Manchu stereotyping that was involved, we never had any interest in that. He's relentless. Assuming that he's the one responsible for what happens to Tony's house, no other villain has been able to strike that fast and that hard at one of our heroes. He's very much about believing that the world needs to learn, and he wants to bend the world to his vision.

Director
Shane Black, who took over for
Jon Favreau who directed the first two films, also clarified what is being done with the sequel:
We're not aiming for bigger, necessarily. We're aiming for different and fresh and new. It's all about capturing that lightning-in-a-bottle feel, about trying to get as much into this as we can. We're looking to get a ton of thrills into a short space, to make a nice little stew for you.

Even star
Robert Downey Jr. said that all of the stylistic changes are appropriate:
You can dissect why (The Avengers) was the right movie with the right people and the right director at the time. But we feel the same way about Iron Man 3 now.
The film which will not be retreading Nolan's Dark Knight style opens in 3D and 2D theaters on May 3rd, 2013.

Source:
The West Australian