15 Actors Who Almost Played MCU Characters

2. Clive Owen - Iron Man

Clive Owen was heavily considered for Tony Stark at a point where he was on a major career hot streak, having recently made Sin City, Inside Man, Children of Men and Shoot 'Em Up.

It didn't happen in the end, and sadly Owen's blockbuster movie career has pretty much stagnated ever since (though he did some damn fine work on Steven Soderbergh's TV show The Knick).

Would It Have Worked?: Owen is a likeable actor with a chiseled look and undeniable charm, but he's also not exactly great at accents, especially American, and like Timothy Olyphant, it's hard to imagine him firing off all those witty one-liners with the same verve as Robert Downey Jr.

It'd be interesting to see how successful Iron Man would've been with him as the lead, though, and how differently his career could've gone as a result.