Former Marvel Boss Says Board "Thought I Was Crazy" For Casting Robert Downey Jr As Iron Man

May 14, 2023

David Maisel revealed how his vision for what would become the MCU was fiercely opposed by the studio, particularly about bringing RDJ aboard.

While Kevin Feige, who is the current head of the MCU, has since become associated with the studio's continued astronomical success, it was actually a very intuitive man named David Maisel who constructed the foundation for its fantastical metamorphosis into the filmmaking powerhouse it is now. However, before everything fell into place and the proof was put on big-screen display, Maisel faced serious opposition to his plans by none other than the studio board itself, and it was an uphill battle to not only get the film he wanted to launch, but the actor he wanted to help make it all happen. Per a new interview with The New Yorker, Maisel discussed how his credit for bringing forth Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr at the helm has gone largely unnoticed.

Related: Kevin Feige Confirms Robert Downey Jr. Almost Played Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four

David Maisel is a longtime entertainment executive who once upon a time aspired to head up a studio of his own, and that soon became true with his ascendancy as president and architect of the first iteration of the MCU. While that's a milestone in itself, the rapidly-growing legacy of its current president Kevin Feige has inadvertently done its part to largely overshadow the contributions made by Maisel, who has likened it to a "Thanos Snap". Even the former chief counsel of Marvel Entertainment John Turitzin remarked in the same interview that it's strange how the creator himself has essentially been forgotten.

"David's been sort of written out of the history of the studio, which I really think is weird...It was his brainchild."

During his days as an agent at Endeavor in 2003, Maisel first crafted in his head the idea of a cinematic universe. He believed that it could be something truly innovative that could go on seemingly forever, given the correct formula of story content and the characters woven into it.

‘Hey, if I can get a movie I can believe in, and every movie after that one is a sequel or a quasi-sequel — the same characters show up — then it can go on forever...Because it's not 30 new movies. It's one movie and 29 sequels. What we call a universe."

The "universe" trope would of course go on to be used by a variety of other directors in other genres, and has been embraced by the industry as a creative and lucrative means of filmmaking. Maisel flew to Florida to meet then-CEO of Marvel Entertainment Isaac Perlmutter about the idea, and in return he got the reins as president of Marvel Studios, and raised over half a billion in financing to make his dream a reality. After conducting a focus group study with children about which superhero toy they liked most, the winner without question was Iron Man. He then brought Elf director Jon Favreau aboard as director for the Iron Man film that would officially launch the MCU in 2008, and in order to achieve liftoff they needed the perfect actor.

According to Maisel himself, director Favreau was essential in getting the studio to sign off on the casting of Robert Downey Jr. At the time he was more known for his hard-knock reputation as a recovering drug addict who was in and out of jail, and barely hanging on in Hollywood. This all made the studio very nervous about making him a choice for the MCU's figurehead, and they were swaying towards Timothy Olyphant instead.

"My board thought I was crazy to put the future of the company in the hands of an addict...I helped them understand how great he was for the role. We all had confidence that he was clean and would stay clean."

Of course, the torch was ultimately given to RDJ, who indeed stayed clean and brought his innate charisma and wit to the role that would help transform the studio into the multi-billion dollar cinematic empire it is today. That credit does entirely go to Maisel and Favreau, and their determination that paid off in an infinity of spades.