Variety report the actor, currently starring in space action flick Lockout, will join Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle in the sequel, with Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) taking over as director from franchise kickstarter Jon Favreau.
Black's script (co-written with Drew Pearce) will draw from Warren Ellis' Iron Man: Extremis series of the comics, with Downey Jr's Tony Stark to dabble in nanotechnology. Pearce will play geneticist Aldrich Killian, whose work will get into the hands of terrorists. Sir Ben Kingsley was recently cast as the villian, as "someone who revolves around the spreading of a nanobot virus," so this new casting falls into place.
Production will commence in North Carolina next month for a 3rd May 2013 release. You can get your Iron Man fix, complete with never-bettered Stark snarking, when Marvel's Avengers Assemble hits UK cinemas 26th April.
Pearce will next be seen in Ridley Scott's Prometheus, John Hillcoat's Lawless (formerly Wettest County), and the next film from Like Crazy director Drake Doremus.