A Risk Well Taken? Marvel Was Skeptical About Robert Downey Jr. Playing Iron Man

Close your eyes.

Think of Iron-Man. Who comes to your mind? We bet it's the face of Robert Downey Jr. in his red superhero suit. While most of us can agree that Downey was born to play the role of Tony Stark, Marvel was totally against casting the iconic actor.

Marvel Studios

There's a solid reason as to why Marvel didn't want Downey and that's because years of bad publicity due to excessive partying, multiple arrests for drug and alcohol abuse as well as a plethora of other self-destructive behaviour, made Downey made him a big risk for the studio.

During that time, Robert Downey Jr. also lost roles in Wild Things and Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda due to insurance issues and was fired from Ally McBeal following a 2001 arrest.

Robert Downey Jr.

So when Jon Favreau, who directed Iron Man and Iron Man 2, recommended Downey as the right actor for the job, several eyebrows were raised.

"Everybody knew he was talented,¡± Favreau had said. ¡°Certainly by studying the Iron Man role and developing that script I realized that the character seemed to line up with Robert in all the good and bad ways. And the story of Iron Man was really the story of Robert¡¯s career."

Marvel Studios

Favreau concluded, "It was my job as a director to show that it was the best choice creatively and now the Marvel Universe is the biggest franchise in film history."

And as you know, the rest is history. We can't possibly even fathom anyone else playing Iron-Man and that's because Robert Downey Jr. truly made the character his own.