Kevin Feige's Original Choice For Iron Man Was Nothing Like Robert Downey Jr.

As far as pivotal movie roles go, few can match up to Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man. It's one of the most famous, beloved portrayals of a superhero ever, and it almost never happened at all. Downey Jr. had a troubled reputation back when Marvel first started looking to cast the role; he had famously struggled hard with addiction and his mental health, to the point where production teams in the 2000s would withhold portions of his salary until after he finished filming. It was insurance in case real-life circumstances forced him out of the project, as was the case on the legal TV drama "Ally McBeal."

Although Downey Jr. wasn't quite as down on his luck pre-"Iron Man" as the common narrative implies (he'd already started to prove himself with movies like "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" in 2005), his casting in "Iron Man" in September 2006 was the clearest sign yet that his most troubled days were over. This movie kickstarted an entire cinematic universe that's still alive today, with thirty-three movies so far and plenty more to come. Marvel didn't know that the MCU would be as big as it became, but the studio definitely had ambitious plans for the franchise. If Marvel was trusting Downey Jr. to take on such a role, clearly things were going well for the guy. 

But before Downey Jr. had the chance to fully prove himself as a reliable leading man, there was another talented actor who nearly got the role first. As Marvel president Kevin Feige explained in a 2023 commencement speech, "We pinpointed the right guy, and we extended an offer to our top choice — an actor who checked all of those boxes and who we were confident would be a huge hit. And his name, of course, was Clive Owen."

"He passed. He was not interested," Feige said. He used this anecdote as a lesson to graduating college students about how sometimes not getting what you want can work out for the best. For fans who'd later hear about this bit of trivia, however, it raised an interesting question: Could Clive Owen have made a good Iron Man? He certainly had the right look for the part, but it's not clear if he could've played the right brand of sarcastic, jaded genius. 

One of Owen's most famous roles, even if it wasn't a big hit at the time, was 2006's "Children of Men," where he played another character who was somewhat bitter and withdrawn at the start; it's a vaguely similar sort of arc to what Tony goes through in the first "Iron Man," but a lot more subtle and gentle. Based on his overall filmography, if Owen was going to play the lead of a major ongoing action series, he should've been playing someone like James Bond, as a lot of his fans still insist to this day. 

For Feige, there appears to be no hard feelings between him and Owen. He agrees, along with the rest of the world, that going with Downey Jr. worked out just fine: 

"Not getting your first choice might just be the greatest thing that can happen to you. Because you know what's better than getting your first choice? Getting the right choice. And in our case, of course, that choice was Robert Downey Jr."