The first Iron Man 3 trailer has just been released online. Watch the exciting new footage of Marvel’s next Iron Man movie that hits theaters on May 3.

Earlier last week Marvel started an official Facebook promotion to get fans involved with the viral marketing by unlocking a preview of the teaser trailer which was released just minutes ago. The more “Likes” the official Iron Man Facebook page got, the quicker we could get a sneak preview of the Iron Man 3 trailer. We got to see the sneak preview this past Sunday and another trailer teaser yesterday – now we have Iron Man 3’s full theatrical trailer below.

The first trailer for Iron Man 3 gives us some incredible new looks of the new Iron Man armor, which features quite a bit more gold than previous versions of the armor. We first saw this version of the armor back at San Diego Comic-Con 2012 and we have to say, it looks much more appealing in the trailer footage than it did in the photos.

The film’s villain, the Mandarin, played by Sir Ben Kingsley, is featured in the trailer and has a voice over that ends with: “Lesson number one: Heroes, there is no such thing.” It seems as though he is addressing the nation, as he says some people consider him a terrorist, but he considers himself “a teacher.”

Then we see Tony Stark’s cliff-side mansion being destroyed via helicopter missiles and crumbling into the ocean below (with Pepper and Stark inside when it happens). Pepper Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, is then seen either in pain or pleading for her life while in captivity.
 
We then see what looks like someone in Iron Man’s new armor waking up Pepper and Tony from sleep, so we have to assume either someone steals the armor at some point in the next film, or possibly it’s being controlled remotely. We did notice that it seemed to jump on them as soon as Pepper’s hand touched Tony’s arm, so maybe the new suit has a built in protection device for Stark – even when he’s not controlling it.

According to the official synopsis, which was released last week, Stark’s personal life will be “destroyed” and in the trailer we certainly see Stark being pushed to the brink of insaity due to the love of his life being caught in such immediate danger.

 
Tony appears to be a on quest that will test him mentally and physically, but most importantly he’ll be attempting to answer an intriguing question: “Does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?”

We see Iron Man suits being blown to pieces in the new trailer and then a glimpse of the Mandarin, which quickly swings to a shot of what we presume is Rhodey in the Iron Patriot suit landing to protect the president. Then we see Pepper being kissed by Aldrich Killian (Extremis) and then a sequence is shown of Air Force One being blown up and Iron Man attempting to rescue the people on board and most likely the president as well.

We also get a good look at the Iron Patriot suit of armor, which we’ve only seen so far in set photos. Stark’s trusted friend Rhodey, played by Don Cheadle, is again wearing the suit in an attempt to aid Stark in destroying the film’s villains – the Mandarin and Extremis – protect the President and retrieve Pepper from captivity. The red, white, and blue suit looks even more impressive in the trailer and we can’t wait to see it on the big screen.

Guy Pearce shows up in the new footage, who will be playing the villain Aldrich Killian, also known as Extremis, in the film. He works with Maya Hansen, a friend of Stark’s from the comic and she and Killian happen to be working on a new program funded by the government, which is using nanotechnology to recreate the Super-Soldier serum seen in Captain America, which melds with the brain and forces the body to rebuild itself.

This gives the user the ability to create superhuman abilities via programming the serum prior to injection. We have a feeling this serum will play a pivotal role in this film.
 
During the final shots of the new trailer we see Tony Stark dragging his suit of armor in the snow, where it looks to be in a heap of pieces. This appears to be after Stark removes his helmet at the beginning of the trailer and is badly injured. Considering there’s snow on the ground, we can’t imagine he’s too close to his California home (or previous home). Then it simply fades to the Iron Man 3 logo and release date.

This first Iron Man 3 trailer has been in the minds of all Iron Man fans after similar footage was shown to a very select few at this year’s Comic-Con and we look forward to hearing what the fans have to say about finally getting their chance to check out the footage. Be sure to let us know in the comments if seeing the first trailer has you as excited as us.

After Robert Downey Jr. rocked our worlds in the first Iron Man, he skyrocketed into being one of the biggest names in Hollywood. Expect to be bombarded by viral marketing from Marvel Studios for Iron Man 3 as we get closer to its May 3 release date. As you may’ve noticed in the trailer it says coming in April, as the film will be released in the U.K. on April 26.