Robert Downey Jr. might be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a new role, but we knew him first and best as Iron Man.
After all, him being cast as the iconic hero was one of the first strokes of genius that laid the groundwork for the creation of the MCU that we have come to know and love. However, he was very nearly not cast as the iconic hero.
The Oscar-winning actor kickstarted the MCU with the first Iron Man movie in 2008. Now, it’s abundantly clear that he is the “genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist” that is Tony Stark.
After entering the franchise, he played the iconic hero in 10 movies. He seemingly exited the world with 2019′s Avengers: Endgame, but now he’s set to return in Avengers: Doomsday playing Doctor Doom!
We can safely say that he was the right choice to play Tony Stark, but at the time, it was seen as a risk to cast him due to personal struggles. Marvel wanted to hit it out of the park and begin their franchise with a bang. They weren’t sure that he could do that.
This was before the MCU had become one of the biggest film franchises of all time. However, there was still a lot of interest in playing Tony Stark. In honor of the news of Robert‘s official comeback, we did some digging and rounded up eight stars who were tied to the role.
The list includes one actor who outright turned it down and some other very big names that have commented on their experience.
Scroll through the slideshow to see all of the actors who were at some point considered for the role of Iron Man…
