Robert Downey Jr. says IRON MAN was an experiment the studio was prepared to cancel if it failed

The MCU is a huge, powerful, profitable machine these days, producing a few movies, as well as series now, every year, and actors are happy to have the gig to star in them since they tend to dominate at the box office. But that wasn’t always the case. There were movies that came out before the Marvel movies we know today that didn’t fare as well, or if they did, they didn’t tie into a larger universe. So no one could have known what the 2008 film was Iron man was about to start, but the studios had their expectations very low.

In a recent interview during an event to promote his new documentary film Mr.per Twitter user Chris Gardner (via CB), the Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. described the process of making the film, saying:

“Well, I mean, first of all, because not too many people thought Iron Man was going to have an opening weekend or do something different, so we were kind of left alone. Every day I find out more about how that thing was. funded, it was pretty much ready to be written off if it went bankrupt. And so, anyway, it was the perfect thing where there weren’t a lot of creatively aggressive eyes on us. And when they did give it to us, it was like united artists, like the lunatics take over the asylum. And I also remember Jeff Bridges saying, ‘Dude, we’re making a $200 million independent film, man.’ And there was just the sense that, obviously, it was much more organised.”

Of course, now we all know Iron man went on to earn $585.8 million worldwide and kickstarted the cinematic universe that Marvel movies live in. A couple of months ago, another of the movie’s stars, Jeff Bridgestold Vanity Fair:

“It drove me crazy until I made a little adjustment in my brain. And that adjustment was, ‘Jeff, relax. You’re making a $200 million student film. Relax and enjoy.’ And that worked out, because here I get to play with these two incredible artists and just play, and that’s what we ended up doing.”

He added, “For my money, this is the best Marvel movie… I know I’m biased, obviously. But man, I thought it was a wonderful experience.”

It’s kind of funny to think they made such an impactful film with so little oversight, but I bet that’s part of the reason it turned out to be so great. Director Jon Favreau and producer turned head of Marvel Kevin Feige he had a vision and it was executed in the perfect way to start this franchise.