Iron Man's Best Moment Wasn't Scripted (And Inspired Much More MCU Bravery)
Thank RDJ for Marvel not adapting the comics purely...
It's now been a decade since Iron Man launched the MCU and rebranded Robert Downey Jr as one of the most important blockbuster actors of this generation. That film - a huge gamble for the fledgling studio who almost didn't hire their lead actor at all - was ground zero for the franchise that has come to dominate the box office landscape for the past 10 years, and it set out Marvel's model in more ways than one.
According to a new report on Deadline celebrating the anniversary of the movie, one of Iron Man's most celebrated moments was not only ad-libbed by Robert Downey Jr, but it also inspired the studio to make more creative decisions and move away from the comics.
The final moment when Tony Stark reveals that he is Iron Man, rather than reading out the prepared statement from SHIELD wasn't originally in the script, but it was clearly so good that it couldn't not be used. And Kevin Feige and his film-makers actually owe RDJ and director Jon Favreau a debt for their bravery in including it. Because, as Feige told Deadline, it helped them break free of the shackles of expectations when it came to adaptation:
“That success inspired us to go further in the trusting ourselves to find balance of staying true to the comics and the spirit of the comics but not being afraid to adapt and evolve and to change things. It’s a fine line. If you’re changing something for no reason, that’s one thing, but if you’re changing something because you want to double-down on the spirit of who the character is? That’s a change we’ll make. Tony Stark not reading off the card and not sticking with the fixed story? Him just blurting out ‘I am Iron Man?’ That seems very much in keeping with who that character is. It just hadn’t been done in the comics before, but it was something very much in keeping with the comics character and what he could have done. I think it did inspire us on all the movies. What I love now — 20 movies in — is how fans expect the MCU to change and adapt. They expect us to be inspired by the comics as opposed to being slavishly devoted to them.”
So next time you're wondering why Marvel don't purely adapt the storylines they use for their movie titles, you should just know that it was down to Downey Jr. And while that will always annoy purists, it's absolutely not a bad thing: some of the best moments in the MCU were not in the comics (or at least not in THOSE storylines) and some of the best lines weren't in any scripts.
And where would we be without the joy of improvisation and creative freedom? Star Wars. We'd be in Star Wars.