IRON MAN Launched The MCU Because The Kids Wanted Iron Man Toys

Before the MCU was really a thing, we had the X-Men movies, Spider-Man movies starring Tobey Maguire, and a couple other superhero movies but overall, they were pretty gritty. With how popular those movies were, it’s no surprise that Marvel would want to get in on the action. Who would be their first superhero to bring home the bacon though? Well, Iron Man.

I was excited to see Iron Man because he was my favorite Marvel hero since I saw his animated series back in the 1990’s. It turns out that the reason they chose Iron Man to launch the MCU was because of toys. According to the Wall Street Journal, Marvel had focus groups of kids and asked them which action figure would they prefer to play with. Iron Man was the more popular toy, and since at the time toy sales were how Marvel was going to get the big bucks, they went with that. Who would’ve thought that toys would be the deciding factor for what movies got made? Oh, wait…

I’m glad they made Iron Man, though, so I guess I owe a big thanks to those children who wanted to play with his action figure. Do any of you own an Iron Man action figure!?