Before Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr had to play a Marvel villain!

Find out which supervillain was to be played by Robert Downey Jr before he was cast as Tony Stark in ‘Iron Man’.

Robert Downey Jr could have been a supervillain of the Marvel universe! Long before being chosen to play the unforgettable Tony Stark who marked a generation of spectators, the actor had been considered for a much more unsympathetic role.

For the 15th anniversary of the first Iron Man, its director Jon Favreau reminded producer Kevin Feige of the info at the microphone of THR :

I remember you had met before [Robert Downey Jr] for the role of Doctor Doom or something like that for another project. I think maybe it was for Fantastic Four, so everyone [chez Marvel] knew who he was.

Indeed, director Tim Story and Marvel Entertainment released The Fantastic Four in 2005, starring Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffudd and Chris Evans, and whose villain, played by Julian McMahon, was Doctor Doom. And apparently, “RDJ” almost stole his place.

If Downey Jr had been cast as the villain in Fantastic Four, not only would he probably never have become Tony Stark, but we would still have had a movie in which he stars opposite Chris Evans, which happened years later in the Avengers and Captain America: Civil War!

Still according to Favreau, the first Iron Man had trouble getting together, but once Robert Downey Jr was recruited, the other actors gladly joined the project, which was not the case before: “[ils ont commencé à signer] because then it became something interesting.”

The end of the story, everyone knows it: the first Iron Man brings in 585 million dollars worldwide, or 824.7 million today, which is to say a tidy sum, given that the film does not. had only cost 140. Iron Man 2 will do even better, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe will officially launch as a blockbuster franchise.

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As for the Fantastic Four, after the chaos of the filming of the 2015 version, the superheroes will soon be back with a new feature film in preparation, which is only now in its infancy (negotiations to find the good cast). The director of this future film, Matt Shakman (WandaVision), is busy directing a series on Godzilla.

The Marvel feature film already has a release date, February 12, 2025 in France and the 14th, Valentine’s Day, in the United States. From there to imagine that the angle of the film will mark the meeting between Sue Storm and Reed Richards, there is only one step!

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Before Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr had to play a Marvel villain!