20 facts you might not know about 'Iron Man'

Well, we guess this answers how Iron Man changed movies. While movies had been based on Marvel characters before, this was the beginning of what we now know as the Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU. If Iron Man had flopped, we may not have gotten Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision, or Black Panther. It all began here.

As far back as 1990, studios were trying to make a movie about Tony Stark and his suit. Back then, it was Universal, but they saw it as a cheap film they could churn out for comic book readers. Over the years, it went from Fox to New Line and had so many names attached to it. When nobody had made a film by 2004, the rights went back to Marvel, who decided to make this its first self-financed movie.

Favreau was given the job of directing Iron Man, and in his mind, it would be the “ultimate spy movie.” He listed Tom Clancy and James Bond as a couple of his influences. Additionally, Favreau’s idea was to move the action from Vietnam (like in the comics) to Afghanistan, as he did not want to make Iron Man a period piece.

Nowadays, it seems like every movie star is in a Marvel movie. Celebrities weren’t necessarily clamoring to play superheroes back in the day, though, unless it was Batman. Originally, Favreau planned to cast a newcomer as Stark/Iron Man, saying that Iron Man is the film's star, not the actor who plays him.

Downey was a big star in the ‘80s, but over a decade before Iron Man, he was best known for his issues with substance abuse. That put the kibosh on his stardom, but Favreau thought it helped make Downey perfect for the part. He saw the flaws in Tony Stark in Downey and wanted to cast him as a result. Downey’s turn in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang also helped. Favreau was a fan of that performance.

Favreau may have really wanted Downey for Iron Man, but the studio was less sure because of his personal life. Eventually, Favreau won out, but it wasn’t exactly a big payday for the actor. Perhaps to try and hedge their bets (or just to save some cash), Downey only made $500,000 for Iron Man. Don’t worry. He made plenty of money later on.

One of the only other names Favreau considered for Tony Stark was Sam Rockwell. While Rockwell didn’t get the part, he played Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2. Meanwhile, Don Cheadle was considered for James Rhodes, but Terrence Howard got the part. However, Howard was replaced before Iron Man 2. The man who replaced him? Cheadle.

The role of Stark’s chauffeur "Happy" Hogan is not a big or important one. Favreau cast himself in the role, which was fair, given that he’s worked as an actor for years in addition to directing. The Hogan role proved fruitful to the actor. “Happy” Hogan has appeared in seven Marvel movies, including 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home.

When it comes to special effects and makeup, few names are on par with Stan Winston. He’s worked on some of the biggest film franchises ever. He’s been nominated for 10 Oscars and won four of them. Winston was a fan of Iron Man from the comics, so he was happy to work on the movie. He was responsible for creating two different versions of the Iron Man suit, one in metal and one made of rubber.

A lot of the action in Iron Man was shot in and around Los Angeles. Favreau made this decision for a reason. He felt that most comic book movies were shot on the East Coast and set in New York or the facsimiles of New York. The director wanted Iron Man to have a West Coast feel to separate it from the competition.

Iron Man' s action and big storyline points were fleshed out before they started shooting the movie. The dialogue? Um…not so much. The script wasn’t entirely finished, so Favreau let the actors improvise. To be fair, he had done improv in Chicago himself. Due to all the improvisation, Jeff Bridges described the movie as a “$200 million student film.”

Perhaps the biggest scene of Iron Man didn’t happen until the credits. Yes, this was the first instance of Marvel’s famous post-credits scenes. Nick Fury shows up to try and convince Iron Man to join the Avengers Initiative. This scene was shot with a skeleton crew to try and avoid anybody finding out about it. One person that was on set was comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis. He wrote some lines for Fury, and then Favreau and company chose the lines they liked best.

Jackson stepped into the role of Nick Fury beginning with Iron Man, a role he’s played like 50 times now, give or take. In a way, there was nobody else to cast. When Marvel created their “Ultimate Marvel” imprint, they used Jackson’s appearance for Fury. Given that Fury already looked like Jackson, it made sense to cast him.

Favreau told the film’s composer Ramin Djawadi that he envisioned a score influenced by heavy metal and guitars. Stark was a rock star in his mind, and the music should reflect that. With that inspiration, Djawadi compared the score for Iron Man on guitar. Also, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello appeared in the score and was given a cameo role in the movie.

The rapper Ghostface Killah has a few other aliases. This includes performing as “Ironman” and “Tony Starks.” Yes, Starks. Ghostface Killah had a cameo in the movie, but the Wu-Tang Clan member’s scene was cut.

As we said, had Iron Man flopped, it would have changed the landscape of the film world. While it wasn’t quite a “$200 million student film,” like Bridges said, it cost $140 million. However, it topped the North American box office in its first two weeks and made $585.8 million worldwide.

Superhero movies rarely get Oscars love outside of the technical categories, and Iron Man was no different. It received two nominations at the Academy Awards, one for Best Sound Editing, and one for Best Visual Effects. The movie didn’t win either one.

We don’t know if this has ever happened before, but Iron Man was nominated for MTV Movie Awards two years in a row. In 2009, the movie was up for Best Movie, and Downey was up for Best Male Performance. However, in 2008, it had already won the category “Best Summer Movie So Far.” That category feels like an excuse to give Iron Man an award, to be honest.

Due to the success of Iron Man, the gang came back for Iron Man 2. Critically, it’s considered maybe the worst MCU movie, but Iron Man 2 was still a blockbuster film. This led to a third Iron Man film, but Favreau did not direct it. While he did return to play “Happy” Hogan, Shane Black wrote and directed the movie.

Are you familiar with What If…?, the Marvel show on Disney+ that shows us alternate realities? You know, what if Peggy Carter had gotten the supersoldier serum instead of Steve Rogers and such? One of the episodes from the first season of What If…? asked, “What if Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?” It posits the villain from Black Panther finding Stark in the desert instead of the Ten Rings imprisoning him.