Iron Man
"I am Iron Man." With these words Tony Stark starts his career in the MCU. And with these words he also ends it. And for that we love him times 3,000.
Cosplay, aliens and skateboards
Since his first comic appearance in 1962, all kinds of cool, exciting, but also bizarre trivia facts have accumulated about Tony Stark. We thought we would compile, uh, the best ones. So, Tony Stark once attended a convention in an Iron Man costume. His blood group is A positive. Iron Man can be unlocked in the video game Tony Hawk's Underground. He owns Roswell Army Air Field and no, it has nothing to do with Area 51. He has three doctorates and his own search engine (Starkle). He hates Tolkien. He has launched a scholarship programme for aliens etc. And the Sorcerer Supreme, Agamotto, once said that there must be a Tony Stark in every universe.
How Robert Downey Jr. became Iron Man
Few actors are so closely associated with a specific role as Robert Downey Jr. with Iron Man. For eleven years he played the "big man in a suit of armour", without which he would still be "genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist". And within a very short time, he became the face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Honestly, to borrow an idea from the multiverse, we cannot imagine an alternate reality in which the MCU without Robert Downey Jr. would have broken through on such a scale. Just as we cannot imagine another actor in the role. Yet all this very nearly failed to come to pass ...
The MCU's biggest risk
For his portrayal of Tony Stark, Downey Jr. was nominated for several awards and (almost incidentally) became the highest paid actor in Hollywood. For several years in a row! From today's perspective, you have to make a real effort to recall what this icon looked like BEFORE Iron Man. Because for a very long time, the actor's defining characteristic was that he was a heck of a problem.
The fact that Downey Jr. was immeasurably talented became apparent quite early on. He made his acting debut at the age of just five in the film Pound by his father. His breakthrough followed in 1992, when he was nominated for an Oscar (and other awards) for his portrayal of Charlie Chaplin. However, the associated fame soon went to the young man's head, and for years Robert Downey Jr. struggled with drug problems. He spent a lot of time in addiction rehab units, ended up in prison and was even thrown off the hit series Ally McBeal shortly after receiving a Golden Globe for his performance. It even got to the point where companies no longer wanted to insure the actor!
No wonder then that Marvel's mastermind Kevin Feige described the signing of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man as the MCU's "biggest risk". How on earth did this problematic actor land the role of a lifetime against all these odds?
The Casting
At the time when Marvel was looking for its Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. had his hands full just trying to get his career halfway back on track. And none of this would have happened without the help of Jon Favreau, who directed Iron Man and Iron Man 2 and who incidentally plays the role of Happy Hogan too. Favreau himself stressed several times in interviews how much opposition his proposal faced from Marvel.
But not so fast: at this point, we should mention that Favreau himself originally had other plans too. As recently as 2006, he told MTV News, "The great thing is that [a film like Iron Man] doesn't need a household name. Iron Man is the star." Which isn't even wrong, after all nobody knew who Christopher Reeve was before he became Superman. At any rate, back then Favreau's preferred option was another actor, namely Sam Rockwell. At least he found his way into the MCU a bit later, albeit in the less flattering role of Justin Hammer.
But once the director got the idea of Robert Downey Jr. in his head, there was no turning back for him. The many similarities between the fictional character of Tony Stark and the real Downey Jr. were not an obstacle for Favreau, but a tangible benefit! Who else would be able to believably convey the exuberant cockiness and crass arrogance of Tony Stark, while also revealing his equally important qualities such as self-doubt and inner conflict? Another way of looking at it is to say the pair made a virtue out of necessity. And man, were they rewarded!
The face of the MCU — at Elbenwald too
The rest, as they say, is history. Iron Man became a huge success, the MCU became the biggest franchise in film history, and Robert Downey Jr. was the figurehead for all of it. This is as true today as it was then, years after his last appearance in Avengers: Endgame. It seems unlikely that any single actor will ever occupy such a presence in Marvel's vast Cinematic Universe.
And by the way, that's not just true for the many films, but also in our department: merchandise. Sure, there are all kinds of things inspired by Avengers, Captain America, Thor, Doctor Strange, Black Widow, Loki and whatever else. But Iron Man merch beats everything hands down. Whether it's Iron Man T-shirts, mugs, collectible figures or even replicas like the Iron Man Gauntlet, when it comes to Marvel, nothing and no one can compete with Iron Man. And we're only too happy to stock up on Iron Man merch. Perhaps even more so today than before his final showdown with Thanos. Because he really is something special and representative of the entire franchise. Tony? We love you times 3,000.