Marvel's Iron Man 2 Designed A Custom Toilet For Robert Downey Jr. To Puke In

It's probably pretty exciting to work as a production designer on a massive blockbuster Marvel movie. After all, it gives people the opportunity to go really big and wild with their ideas because of the sky-high budgets, and it's a guarantee their designs will be seen by millions and millions of people. Besides the associated stressors that go with that kind of high profile job, there is just one other major working hazard: sometimes the design requests can be a little weird. Like "Hey, we need you to design a high tech toilet for Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) to puke in" kind of weird.

For production designer J. Michael Riva, that kind of thing is all in a day's work, but it's a pretty strange request even for a franchise that has a talking raccoon, Norse gods, and space aliens of every shape and size. Due to some big changes made throughout the troubled and chaotic production of "Iron Man 2," the toilet never ended up seeing the light of day. This all seems kind of silly, but that toilet would have played a part in a much darker turn for the film — one that may have had an impact on the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. That's right, a porcelain throne might have been a deciding factor in the MCU's overall tone and success.

While Riva joked to NPR in 2009 that it was pretty funny telling his kids about the custom toilet, in actuality the bit of plumbing represented a much darker turn for Tony Stark. "Tropic Thunder" screenwriter Justin Theroux was brought in to write an adaptation of Marvel Comics' "Demon in a Bottle" storyline, which sees Tony struggle with his alcoholism and finally hit rock bottom. It's harrowing stuff that nevertheless gives the character more depth and pathos, but in the end it was just deemed too intense for families and would have been a bummer for the box office. As Theroux once told UGO (via MTV):

"It's just a great, gritty storyline. It doesn't transfer to film. We didn't want to be the 'Leaving Las Vegas' version of 'Iron Man 2.' Even just a little bit of that can completely dominate the story."

"Demon in a Bottle" sees Tony eventually overcoming his alcoholism and getting clean, but the folks at Marvel Studios weren't willing to go there when "Iron Man 2" was already taking quite a few risks. It's entirely possible that taking the already character-driven sequel into a darker direction would have alienated audiences and really hurt the MCU right as it was getting into its stride, much as people love their superheroes.

In the original screenplay for "Iron Man 2," the movie opened with Tony with his head in a toilet, puking his guts out while being debriefed by Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). He's absolutely hammered and is having a meltdown about his inability to do the mission at hand, and it's brutal. While the arc is great in a comic book format, it just wouldn't have been great for audiences or Downey's health, as the actor has his own difficult history with substance abuse and has been sober for years. While we'll never get to see the much darker version of "Iron Man 2" that almost existed, there are still elements of that original plot in the movie.

The most notable is when Tony gets wasted at his birthday party and shows everyone how he goes to the bathroom in the Iron Man suit by simply peeing in it. The suit probably has some kind of waste system because no on has time for bathroom breaks when you're saving the world from intergalactic baddies, but it's still pretty inappropriate to do in front of everyone like that. It's a lot less bleak than starting the movie near rock bottom, but it's still a sad reminder of how addiction can get anyone — even superheroes.