Yes, But What Does the First Photo from Iron Man 3 MEAN?

You may look at this first photo from the set of Iron Man 3 and think, "Gee, Tony Stark has a lot of toys." I look at it — a shot of Robert Downey Jr. as Stark, gazing at his wall of Iron Man suits in a lab/Hall of Ego scattered with gadgets and gizmos aplenty — and remember I need to do laundry. Also, I need a bigger closet. Why does Tony Stark have so many wardrobe options?

On the flip side, you could go way into depth surmising what all this hardware means, as EW's Anthony Breznican does:

It’s a big responsibility for whomever — we presume Stark’s automated butler JARVIS — to guard this stuff. Although Marvel Studios hasn’t released details of the plot, if you couple this official image with paparazzi shots last week revealing the Iron Patriot, a character using stolen Stark tech who literally wraps his armor in the flag to justify his actions, we may be seeing the issue of proliferation rising again for ol’ Tony.

Sure, sure. But wait... what could this one face-obscured behind-the-scenes shot mean for the meaning of Iron Man 3?

What comes next could be too powerful even for Stark to control. If rumors are true that Iron Man 3 filmmaker Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) is taking his cues from the Iron Man comic series Extremis, which deals with nanotechnology injected directly into human beings to make them more powerful, then it’s no longer a matter of who is inside the weapon than what kind of weapon is inside the person. And that next case on the wall, which looks eerily like a row of coffins now, would have to contain Tony Stark himself.

WHOA. Way existential, man. Who agrees? Who's excited? Who's wondering if we're really butt-gazing at RDJ's stand-in while the real RDJ is over snacking at craft services?

[EW]