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Hollywood’s Iron Man, aka Robert Downey Jr’s., career skyrocketed to global stardom after he gave life to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the first-ever Iron Man film.
The portrayal of the billionaire playboy philanthropist became iconic, turning Downey into the face of the MCU. Though he had a successful career prior, with his iconic roles in films like Chaplin and Less Than Zero, his personal struggles affected his rise. But Iron Man revitalized his career, leading to a string of blockbuster appearances in The Avengers and other MCU films. While his fans were devastated after his death in Endgame, the recent announcement of his return as Doctor Doom in MCU has brought excitement among fans. While Downey gained massive success financially and critically after playing a superhero, there was a time when he would’ve turned down any superhero role.
Downey never imagined how his career would turn out. He himself admitted in several interviews that he became something he never thought of. In a throwback interview with GQ, the actor admitted that his mind would be divided if he had been offered Iron Man before 2008. He said, “Well, first of all, back then, the reference would have been Christopher Reeve. And Michael Keaton. Right? So I’d have been somewhere in the middle of either having a judgment on it or saying, All right, cool people are doing it.”
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He continued, “But I know that I must have read those comics before, or they were in the atmosphere. So what I would have said was, ‘Ugh, really? That’s a second-tier superhero!’” referring to Iron Man not being a popular name as Batman or Superman.
