The Role of IRON MAN Came Down to Robert Downey Jr. and Timothy Olyphant

Fifteen years ago, the movie Iron Man hit theaters. With Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role, and a post-credits scene that kicked open the door to the upcoming films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was born. RDJ became the head of the Avengers, a charismatic leader that it seemed could only be played by him, but you may be interested to hear that it came down to Downey and one other actor.

President of Marvel Studios during the Iron Man pre-production was David Maisel, who had full confidence in Downey as an actor, but struggled to get approval to cast him in the lead role. Maisel previously told The New Yorker that the studio wasn’t convinced that Downey was capable of staying clean, after spending years as an addict. But Maisel, future MCU president, Kevin Feige, who was President of Production at the time, and filmmaker Jon Favreau got their first choice with RDJ, and he beat out his competition, Timothy Olyphant, who’d been in the running.

Olyphant, who is known for starring in Justified, Deadwood, Santa Clarita Diet, and Daisy Jones & The Six, is a great actor. He has a lot of range, and is always entertaining. But he doesn’t have the charisma of Robert Downey Jr. I really believe Tony Stark when RDJ is in the role, and I don’t think anyone would have played him so well.

via: /Film

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