Iron Man would have been a very different film if it had starred Tom Cruise, and Marvel boss Kevin Feige has explained why that near-casting didn’t pan out.
Per TIME, an excerpt from the new book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios provides some fresh insight into Iron Man, the film that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When the Iron Man rights were previously at 20th Century Fox in the 1990s, Cruise was in consideration for the role of Tony Stark. However, according to Feige in the book, “Cruise’s asking fee at the time was more than even a profitable studio like Fox was willing to risk on an untested superhero property.” Of course, this was many years before the MCU would become the global phenomenon that it is today, and superhero movies were still seen as a big gamble at the time, perhaps exacerbated by 1997’s Batman & Robin flopping with critics and at the box office.
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Subsequently, Marvel Studios couldn’t afford to shell out A-list money with casting the original Iron Man. That immediately took Cruise out of consideration for this version of the project that was ultimately made and released in 2008. Names like Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ) were then given serious consideration, with the Marvel book noting that Timothy Olyphant (Santa Clarita Diet) was the actor who “everyone was rooting for.” Director Jon Favreau is also said to have picked Sam Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) as his top choice for the part, but quickly changed his mind once a certain other actor entered the conversation.
At this time, Robert Downey Jr. was trying to get his acting career on track after years of legal troubles and substance abuse. Because of his history, Favreau had to fight some pushback from Marvel execs over the casting, feeling that Downey’s real-life struggles only made him a better fit for the role of Tony Stark. Screenwriter Matt Holloway is even quoted as saying, “Jon, I know, felt in his bones that it should be Robert and fought for him to the point of saying, ‘It’s going to be him or it’s going to be me.’”
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Downey landed the role, going on to bring to life one of pop culture’s most popular characters of all time with the MCU’s Tony Stark. He’d ultimately play the part in ten separate films before concluding his run in the role with a final appearance in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Earlier this month, fans paid tribute to Downey’s Tony Stark on the canonical date of his MCU death, showing just how beloved he remains several years later.
Iron Man can be streamed on Disney+.
Source: MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios
Kevin Feige shares why Tom Cruise’s casting as Tony Stark didn’t work out. Read More