When shooting for Iron Man 2 began this week, there was a new addition to the cast - veteran actor Garry Shandling, who has joined in as either a reporter or a Senator of some sort. The news comes to us via our friends at IESB, who say that the shooting began with a continuation from the final scene of the original Iron Man film.

The conclusion of the first Iron Man, for those of you who don't remember, had Robery Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark telling the world as a whole "I am Iron Man." And it sounds like the second film will pick up with the continuation of that scene. Shandling is involved with that scene in some aspect - either as a reporter covering the press conference, or as a government official attending the conference.

This seems to fit well with the latest update from Jon Favreau via Twitter, where he wrote:

@jon_favreau First day went great. I've never worked on a sequel before. It's like we picked up where we left off.

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Iron Man 2, directed by Jon Favreau, will continue the tale of Tony Stark and his armored alter-ego as he continues his transformation from billionaire industrialist to super-hero. Robert Downey, Jr. will star as Tony Stark, with Gwynety Paltrow returning in the role of his assistant Pepper Potts. Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson also star. Iron Man 2 blasts into theatres May 7, 2010.