Someplace within the multiverse, Robert Downey Jr. is enjoying the villain.
After the Academy Award winner first suited up as Tony Stark in 2008’s Iron Man, director and co-star Jon Favreau revealed in a fifteenth anniversary retrospective of the inaugural MCU title that Downey Jr. additionally auditioned for Incredible 4 (2005).
“I keep in mind you had all met with him already for like Physician Doom or one thing on one other mission,” he recalled to Marvel boss Kevin Feige within the particular. “I believe he had come via on perhaps Incredible 4, so everyone kind of knew who he was.”
The a part of Physician Doom in the end went to Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck, Charmed).
Favreau praised Downey Jr. as “the puzzle piece that made all of it work” in Iron Man, including: “I keep in mind sitting down with the man, and I used to be like, ‘He’s acquired that spark in him in his eye and he’s prepared.’ That’s once we had been in your workplace, and we had been pointing to his headshot, saying, ‘We acquired to attempt to determine this out.’”
Julian McMahon in Incredible 4 (2005). (twentieth Century Fox Movie Corp.)
“As soon as it was him, that’s when my life acquired quite a bit simpler,” added Favreau. “As a result of he the voice of the character. After which one after the other, individuals had been simply signing on board as a result of now it turned one thing attention-grabbing.”
Feige credited Favreau and Downey Jr.’s behind-the-scenes dynamic with a lot of the MCU’s success. “That tone that you simply and Robert found on that film, I’d say turned the template in a manner for a lot of what the MCU turned,” he stated.
“I keep in mind on later motion pictures – we’ll discuss them on the fifteenth anniversary of these – there have been darkish days,” added Feige. “And I’d say to Robert, ‘We wouldn’t be on this mess if it wasn’t for you.’ That means, we wouldn’t have a studio if it wasn’t for him.”
Robert Downey Jr. speaks throughout the ceremony honoring Jon Favreau with a star on The Hollywood Stroll of Fame on February 13, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Pictures)
As Tony Stark, Downey Jr. ended up becoming a member of forces onscreen with Incredible 4 actor Chris Evans, who performed Captain America for the primary time in 2011, six years after starring because the Human Torch.
Downey Jr. went on to painting Iron Man in 10 motion pictures, bowing out from the franchise with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. In December, Feige shot down any hopes that the actor would possibly return to the franchise after his character made the last word sacrifice.
“We’re going to maintain that second and never contact that second once more,” Feige informed Vainness Honest. “All of us labored very onerous for a few years to get to that, and we’d by no means wish to magically undo it in any manner.”
