Kiss fires up Downey in Iron Man 2

Gwyneth Paltrow gives Robert Downey Jr a kiss on the helmet in the first scenes from Iron Man 2.

The new trailer for the film – set to hit cinemas in May – gives a sneak peek at what fans can expect from the comic book sequel.

It certainly doesn’t disappoint, with never-before-seen scenes featuring Mickey Rourke as Whiplash, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Don Cheadle as War Machine.

Downey has said the new film will stick to the formula that made the first such a box office smash – describing it as a high-tech James Bond.

He says he wanted to make sure the plot of the second film remained grounded and was lucky that, thanks to the success of the first film, producers allowed him to give plenty of input.

“Once you tell a story pretty well, that’s usually where things start to get dull, and one or two or three things start to happen over and over again,” he said.

“So, we made Tony Stark’s challenges very much outside the usual realm of activity. As much as anything else, it’s much more of a side job for him the second time around.

“It would be so easy to go so far out it would be intergalactic and nothing would be grounded in reality any more.

“But I think what worked for ‘Iron Man’ is that it almost seemed like something from the cover of Popular Mechanics.

“These kinds of suits were starting to be made in the States and Japan, so people were responding to Iron Man almost as though it was a more of a high-tech James Bond.”

The film hits cinemas on May 7, 2010.