The rest, as they say, is history. Marvel Studios eventually regained the rights to Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr. swaggered into the MCU and launched a pop culture phenomenon.

Iron Man Wednesday creators worked on a pre-Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man script for a year – and the studio wanted Tom Cruise to play Tony Stark News By Bradley Russell published August 12, 2025 ...

“Avi Arad [the founder of Marvel Studios] approached us after we wrote a story for Spider-Man 2,” Gough and Miller recall in the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via Games Radar). “Like, guys, we have ...

When ‘Iron Man’ Stars Robert Downey Jr, Jeff Bridges & Jon Favreau Altered A $500 Million+ MCU Script Only To Get Rejected By Marvel Studio, Obadiah Stane Actor Said: “… They Kind Of threw ...

Wednesday creators Miles Millar and Al Gough have discussed their early work on an Iron Man script for Marvel — back when Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise was "interested" in the lead role.