All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S04E02.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

In 1998, Blade staked its claim

at the box office...

...in the form of $130 million.

It was the first time a movie
based on a Marvel character

had made real money...
for the studio anyway.

In fact, the amount
Marvel made from that

may surprise you.
They made 25,

no, not million, thousand.

Twenty-five thousand dollars.

Are you out of your damn mind?!

To get out from
all the Hollywood deal making,

a brand-new executive...

Feige was the guy
getting everybody coffee.

...would have
to shoot for the moon.

They were re-fashioning
Marvel studios

into an independent
film production unit.

Betting on a
lesser-known comic character.

I hated the book.

A young director

with a spotty track record.

Using John as the director
was a big risk.

And a star who
may have already burned out.

Robert Downey Jr.
was coming off of

some very public drug troubles.

Through onset re-writes...

Probably thousands of pages
of script.

...and production do-overs.

Okay, we're gonna
change our mind again.

Would Kevin Feige's big ideas

weigh the whole thing down?

We couldn't tell Tony's story.

And most importantly...

would it be any good?

Those movies
had to be good...

or we're dead.

By 1996, as a result
of Marvel's bankruptcy,

Avi Arad and Ike Perlmutter

had swooped in
and taken control,

merging it with the company
Toy Biz...

...and renaming the film division
Marvel Studios.

Perlmutter continued on
as the money man

working in the shadows
across all of Marvel

and Arad would be
the creative force.

Avi is a guy who you
don't actually hear much

in the Marvel story about.
I mean, he was pivotal.

He was absolutely pivotal
in the early days of this.

He was
a hugely powerful figure.

Having lost
the filming rights

to their biggest characters
during the bankruptcy,

Marvel's best bet to make money
was through comics,

toys, and merchandising.

And to sell those,
Avi Arad knew

that the Marvel movies
still had to be made.

Avi Arad
started taking meetings

in every studio around town.

But he faced
an uphill battle.

Avi was out there
really pushing this stuff

and getting this stuff going
and it's Herculean

when you look back
at what he pulled off

because nobody wanted to
do this kind of thing.

And one meeting
was with 20th Century Fox

who obtained the rights
to The X-Men...

...for $2.6 million.

Avi Arad was a big player
in the early X-Men movies.

He nurtured the transition
from comic to animated series

and then from animated series
to live-action feature films.

Kids that grew up
watching the Fox Kids' series

were definitely gonna come see
the live-action film.

Avi convinced
20th Century Fox

and in the year 2000,
the X-Men movie was among

the first of a new breed
of superhero films.

And all of a sudden,
you had superheroes

that started to be done right.

So far, you've all done
a bang-up job.

And despite X-Men
making nearly...

...$300 million at the box office,

Marvel's take was only $6 million.

Instead, true to Avi's plan,
the profits came

in renewed interest
in X-Men merchandise

and comic books,
but buried deep in the credits

for X-Men was something
that would prove

to be far more valuable.

There was
a young associate producer

hungry to make his mark.

He was the guy
getting everybody coffee

- on the set of X-Men.
- And whether it was

the coffee or his encyclopedic
knowledge of comics,

Feige made an impression
on Arad.

When I look back on it,
even then it was clear, like,

- he was up to something.
- Because soon

thereafter, Feige
became Arad's second-in-command

at Marvel Studios
and although they still

weren't in control,
for Marvel,

momentum was building.

CGI was taking
a large leap forward.

Or, in 2002's Spider-Man,
a large swing forward.

It's Spider-Man!

Huh?

You finally had the tools
to make superhero movies

look like the comic books.

If they had done
the Spider-Man movie

ten years earlier,
I don't think it works.

When Avi Arad
brought Spider-Man out

and made that work,
that changed the game.

You've spun
your last web, Spider-Man.

With stunning visuals
and a story that focused

at least as much on the life
of Peter Parker

as on Spider-Man
fighting Green Goblin,

the movie exceeded
box office expectations.

Spider-Man comes out
and it makes

$825 million worldwide.

Impressive.

By far, at that point,
the highest-grossing

superhero movie ever.

But for Marvel,
as usual,

that wasn't their money.

Sony Pictures paid $7 million
for the rights to Spider-Man.

Leaving Marvel
with a small percentage.

They made
5% of box office profits.

Meaning the great
majority of the money

went to the studio,
which wasn't lost

on the rest of the industry.

All those studios
who'd acquired

cheap Marvel properties
during the bankruptcy...

So they started
selling the movie rights

to anybody
that would take them.

...now truly realized
what they had.

These movies
are giant money makers

and there's a huge audience
for them.

But it wasn't
all bad for Marvel.

So the toys
were doing brilliantly

thanks to the movies.
The comics were doing great.

I think it was in 2002,
Fortune magazine called Marvel

the business success story
of the year.

But success is relative...

...and in the years that followed,
Marvel watched

as studios made millions
and millions of dollars

from their own characters
with little to no input.

Marvel was there to offer
some--some nerdy advice,

but they were not in charge
with the money

and they were not making
those movies.

Oh, you can't do this to me.

I started this company!

They saw the fortunes
that all the other studios

were making and they
were seeing so little of it.

And for Ike Perlmutter,

Avi Arad--
and now Kevin Feige,

toys weren't enough
and playtime was over.

You either take control
or you let others.

What you don't get to do
is let others do it

- and then complain about them.
- It was obvious

- what Marvel had to do.
- So the next logical

step is Marvel starting
to make their own movies.

But believe it or not,

that big idea
didn't come from Marvel.

It came from an up-and-coming
talent executive.

David Maisel
approached Perlmutter in 2003

trying to persuade him

that Marvel should make
its own movies.

Specifically, to pay for them.

If Marvel could finance
their own films,

the days
of piddly licensing fees

and pathetic box office dregs
would be behind them.

If they owned their own movies,

the possibilities
could be endless.

They realized that if they were
gonna be able to make

the amount of money
that they felt like

their properties deserved,
they really needed

to be in the movie making
game themselves.

Perlmutter and Arad were

convinced and they
brought David on as COO.

They were refashioning
Marvel Studios

into an independent film
production unit.

But Perlmutter
had one sticking point,

he didn't want Marvel
spending a dime

putting this
new studio together

and the shareholders
had issues, too.

A lot of the shareholders
weren't that excited

about embarking
on this expensive venture.

That sort of leads up to
the Merrill Lynch deal.

There was a deal
with Merrill Lynch

to finance Marvel Studios.

Arad, Maisel,
and Perlmutter

pitched Merrill Lynch
on a financing deal

for $525 million
to make a slate of four films

based on their
top-available properties.

Meaning, if any of these four
yet-to-be-determined movies

failed, financial conglomerate
Merrill Lynch

would obtain the movie rights
to these ten Marvel properties.

The ten characters
in the Merrill Lynch deal

were Captain America,
The Avengers,

Nick Fury,
Black Panther,

Ant-Man,
Cloak and Dagger,

Dr. Strange, Hawkeye,
Power Pack, Shang Chi.

But the deal wasn't done

because if
Marvel made four movies,

who would distribute them?

So they struck a deal
with Paramount.

Paramount had a robust,

international
distribution mechanism

as any proper studio would

and they had
a huge marketing division.

Paramount got a cut
of the box office

that was essentially found money
for them.

Also hoping
to get his cut,

the man who started it all

and whose many creations
would pave the way.

Stan Lee negotiated

a blanket 10% cut of all
Marvel television and movies,

but he would spend years
chasing that money.

But before anyone
could get paid,

Marvel would have
to make the four most important

decisions the company
would ever face.

Marvel built a studio
when they didn't even control

their own
most popular characters.

X-Men,
Spider-Man, Fantastic Four,

Daredevil,
all their biggest comic hits

were leased out
to other studios

and not coming back
anytime soon.

Essentially what
they had to work with was

what was at the bottom of
the toy box when everyone else

grabbed the shiny thing
that they wanted.

Marvel were in deep
with Merrill Lynch

and had committed to making
four movies,

but as for which ones...

They were looking at
what they had.

They didn't have Fantastic Four, Daredevil,

X-Men, Spider-Man.
These were all at other studios.

So they started looking
at the stuff we were doing.

You know, which was
those Avengers characters.

Their only options
were a string of names

like Ant-Man,
Thor, Iron Man.

We kinda take for granted
now that those are

the major characters,
but at that time,

most people aren't gonna know
who those people are.

Maybe only one
of these characters were

in the top 50,

but none of them
were in the top 25.

As well as that,
these relatively

unknown characters
were part of a large team

of superheroes
going by the name Avengers

around since 1963.

In the early 2000s,
Mark Millar was spearheading

a new comic
called The Ultimates

which was based
around The Avengers.

I had the best job ever.
I got to come in

and reinvent these characters
back in the year 2000.

When they thought
they might have a movie

ahead of them
so they asked me to come in

and make
them all very 21st Century.

When that came out,
it was very fresh

and it had a look of trying
to portray superheroes

more gritty,
more down to Earth.

Something that felt like--

like could be happening
in--in this world.

And be it luck or fate,

this ragtag team
had potential far beyond

just standalone movies.

There was a possible
Avengers team to assemble.

A fact not lost
on Kevin Feige.

That was an idea that
Kevin Feige had early, early on.

But let's not
get ahead of ourselves

and, besides,
the rights to some of these

Avengers characters
had been ping-ponging

around Hollywood for years.

Some of them had been out
to different studios

and never really
got off the ground.

New Line
had talked about doing

- Iron Man for a while.
- Most notably with

Tom Cruise playing Tony Stark.

But after serious
development by New Line...

The people
couldn't get around the idea

- that you can't see his face.
- Another contender...

- Hulk was over at Universal.
- Right.

- Everybody loves a bit of...
- Hulk smash!

After all,
Hulk was the biggest Avenger

in both size and, most
importantly, name recognition.

The Hulk was still
the most well-known.

You know,
there was the Lou Ferrigno

television show
that popularized him.

When I started to film
The Hulk the series

the first day of filming,
the producer people told me,

they said this character
could go very far.

- Be very famous.
- But maybe The Hulk

wasn't the best choice
for Marvel's very first

- self-made movie.
- I don't know

that I'd start with that guy
because you're just a big brute.

You need to start with
who's gonna be your team leader.

Well, Captain America
was a good choice, but...

He'd been around
since World War II

so he might come across
as a little bit of...

sort of like my dad's hero.

Start talking.
Who's your boss?

And, so,
if not Captain America

and not The Hulk,

maybe the time was right
for Iron Man.

Iron Man is the most credible
of all the Marvel characters.

All you have to do
is accept the technology

of that armor
and the whole thing works.

I think Iron Man
is very relatable.

He wasn't born a superhero
like Thor or whatever.

He didn't have
these special powers,

but he created them
through his scientific ability.

If you're gonna start
out with a superhero universe,

start out with the guy start out
with the guy that doesn't

stretch people's imaginations
too much.

But to truly
understand Iron Man,

we have to go back
to 1963.

The U.S. is tangled up
in Vietnam.

Stan Lee decided
to challenge the world

with a character
everybody could hate.

- An arms dealer.
- He was created to see

if he could get away
with making this unlikable

arms dealer a superhero.

But those early comics

weren't a hit with everyone.

I have been drawing
my own Iron Man comics

since I was a little kid
because I hated

the comics.
It was always awful,

but I kept thinking about
what it could be.

By 1978,
Marvel was about to power

- Iron Man down for good.
- Kill power.

If they thought a book
was going to get cancelled,

they would take
their A-list guys off

and then put
schmucks like us on.

This particular
schmuck is Bob Layton.

At the time, a young comic
artist and writer at Marvel.

So I begged. I just go,
"Please. Iron Man, please."

And after
Marvel agreed, he asked...

"Do you mind
if we change a few things?"

And they're like, "Uh, yeah,
we're gonna cancel it anyway.

- Do what you want."
- And so Bob did

what he always dreamed
of doing with the characters.

Changing the focus
from Iron Man to Tony Stark.

Because in all those
years of reading the comic,

Bob had been asking himself
some questions.

Why isn't he a rock star?

Why isn't it when he walks
into a room

somewhere
people lose their minds?

So Bob made Tony
cool and handsome.

- Hey, Tony, remember me?
- Sure don't.

What 15-year-old boy
doesn't want to be Tony Stark?

The guy in the room
with all the girls

and all the money
and all the toys?

Imagine if Elon Musk
was handsome.

Yeah, I said it.

But the real key
to setting up Iron Man

for success was giving Tony
some real stakes.

And any decent writer
will tell you

the best conflicts
always are internal.

In my head,
Tony was King Arthur.

His Camelot
was Stark Industries.

But like King Arthur,

heavy is the head
that wears the crown.

Tony's heavy head was a hit.

Iron Man was no longer struggling.

At least not in terms
of popularity.

In six issues,
we turned the whole thing around

and made it one of Marvel's
top-ten books.

By the time we left it,
I think, it was selling

close to 1/2 million copies.

The rest is history
as they say.

But despite that,

was Iron Man
a big enough hit

to make a successful film?

So to put
the question to rest,

Avi Arad relied on his
previous experience.

Avi's a toy man
and was a fan of Marvel,

but he was first and foremost
a toy man.

Magneto's magnetic power--

He put together
a focus group of kids

to see what toys
they would enjoy playing with

because Marvel
makes a ton of money on toys.

And once the kids found out
Iron Man had an actual man

inside of that armor,
the kids ate that up

and played with him
more than anybody else.

So Iron Man was greenlit,

but just to hedge their bets,

they also greenlit
The Incredible Hulk.

The idea
was to shoot two movies.

To do the two that they thought
they had the best chance with.

And, so,
Marvel confidently forged ahead,

very confidently,
because as well as Iron Man

and The Incredible Hulk...

They announced
they were gonna make movies

of Captain America, Thor,

- Nick Fury.
- And Ant-Man.

And it seemed,
in front of the world...

That was
an idea that Kevin Feige had

early, early on.

Feige was going all in.

The characters
that I name that we are

working on currently,
you put them all together,

there's no coincidence
that that may someday

equal The Avengers.

I think, uh...
I think just having that--

that possibility on the horizon
is something

- that excites all of us.
- To commit publicly

to this before they even made
a single movie

put Marvel's reputation
and future on the line.

Nobody was going
to go see those movies

just because
it said Marvel on them.

Those movies
had to be good...

or we're dead.

In front
of the world, Kevin Feige

set Marvel up
for years of success

or crushing humiliation.
It really could've gone

either way, but Feige
was determined to get it right.

Kevin took it seriously.

He's a fan.
He always wanted to say,

"We need to be clear
of the outside studios

'cause they
don't understand comics.

They need to be done
by us, for us,

and for the fans."

But the "us"
in that equation

wasn't just super-fan
Kevin Feige.

And, so,
CEO Ike Perlmutter

assembled a team of experts,

leaving nothing to chance.

So the Marvel brain trust
was created as a way

to provide insight
to the creative direction

- of the movies.
- I think it was called

"The Creative Committee"
I believe.

The Creative Committee
would give notes

on the scripts
to make sure they were

as accurate to the comics
as possible.

That committee came
with Perlmutter.

It was a way for
Perlmutter to exert control.

But one person wasn't happy

with Ike's new think tank.

Avi Arad was somebody
that liked to work on his own.

Suddenly it seemed like

there were too many cooks
in the kitchen

and Avi
couldn't stand the heat.

He felt like he
couldn't be at Marvel anymore.

After over a decade
fighting his way up

from toy designer
all the way to the head

of their new film studio,

Avi Arad sold his stock
and quit.

Having almost single-handedly
kept Marvel alive,

now Avi Arad
would need to be replaced

by, um, well...

the choice was obvious.

At that point,
you have Kevin Feige

who was in the mix and was
kind of rising up the ranks.

He's promoted
to President of Production.

And even though
he would answer to Perlmutter

and, well,
the Marvel Creative Committee,

Feige was now
a legitimate player

in the Hollywood
studio structure.

- However...
- He was eager

to get as far away
from the regular studio

structure as possible.

Literally moving
their offices away

from other studios' reach.

We were actually working out
of the Mercedes-Benz dealership

on the second floor.
It was kind of a trippy thing.

And with Feige
behind the wheel,

he would need to
find a director for Iron Man.

Enter Jon Favreau

who, as it happens,
had already put his hand up

to direct Iron Man
some years before

when he was making Elf
for New Line.

He heard that Iron Man
was in development

and said, "Hey, I'd be interested
in doing that."

And they were like,
"Hey, you know what

we're interested in? Elf.
You should make Elf."

And, so,
Favreau did just that.

Making a hilarious,
very un-superhero movie.

I'll be okay.
I just need a glass of water.

So this being

the first movie
that Marvel Studios

was producing independently,
and also being a movie

- called Iron Man...
- You thought,

"Well, to make
a big superhero movie,

you have
to get a superhero guy."

And Jon Favreau
certainly wasn't that.

He was out of independent
films and an actor.

But Jon's most recent
film at the time, Zathura,

wasn't exactly a hit.
Although, there were advantages

to bringing on
a less-established director.

You're not hiring
Steven Spielberg to make

a Marvel movie and thinking
that you're gonna have

any say whatsoever
in how that movie looks or feels.

Whereas if you hire somebody
who's more of an up-and-comer,

then it's more
of a conversation.

But perhaps
Jon's biggest strength

was the respect he had
for the material.

Jon Favreau
understood that...

we can do real romance,
real drama

and also humor.

Please, no gang signs.

No, throw it up.
I'm kidding.

And that was
the secret sauce.

So Favreau
was brought on as the director.

Very, very unusual choice,
but what a correct choice.

And in turn,
Jon brought on his own writers

to take a stab at the script.

My name is Mark Fergus
and I was one of

the screenwriters
on Iron Man.

Mark and his writing partner,

Hawk Ostby, had made a career
out of taking unpopular jobs.

The way we got
a career going,

we would just say,
"Hey, give us the stuff

nobody else wants
or that's in between genre."

We realized that we love
the in-between stuff

that--that's--it's kind of
straddling genres.

It's--It's not kind of neatly
in the pocket of anything.

However, after
the acclaimed dystopian

action-thriller
Children of Men,

the pair worked
with Jon Favreau

on an early version
of John Carter.

Not the one that was made,

but his version
which was totally, like,

a badass, like, western.

Unfortunately,
Favreau's version

would never see
the light of day,

but when he landed
Iron Man, he invited

the two writers
to come with him.

We read the material

that Marvel had sent over
and you're like,

"We have to do this.
This character--

This character is perfect."

Perfectly flawed that is.

A guy who thinks
he's a good man

and a Patriot
and a great American...

Visionary...
genius...

Only through a twist of fate

to find out
he's actually a bad man

and possibly even evil.

The most famous mass murderer
in the history of America.

And then he builds
this new weapon

in the form
of Iron Man to destroy

- all his old weapons.
- Effective immediately,

I am shutting down
the weapons manufacturing

division of Stark International.

Out of all the junk
that made up his weapons,

he's rebuilding
his emotional connection

- to the world.
- Aah.

Ow!

Literally, this story
is about a guy building

- a heart for himself.
- But before he could

have a heart,
Tony Stark needed an actor

to portray him
and as it turned out,

finding the man
behind the iron

wasn't going to be
as simple.

In contention,
Timothy Olyphant,

Clive Owen,
and Sam Rockwell,

but nobody was a perfect fit.

Marvel are relatable
human beings

with relatable problems
and foibles

who just happen
to have a...

very impressive...
skill sets/super powers.

Well, somebody who
had plenty of real life foibles

was Jon Favreau's
number one pick.

Jon Favreau,
to his eternal credit,

is the guy who went to bat
for Downey Jr.

There's just
a little twinkle in his eyes

that tells the audience,
"I know this is ridiculous.

But just come along.
We're gonna have a ride."

I feel like you're driving me
to a court-martial.

- This is crazy.
- To be blunt,

the ability to be a dick
who's also charming.

Is it cool
if I take a picture with you?

- It's very cool.
- But also you kinda want

- him to win in the end.
- You rehearse that much?

Every night in front
of the mirror before bedtime.

But the rest of Marvel

wasn't convinced
Robert Downey Jr.

was their guy.

Marvel, famously, kinda
pushed back on his casting.

Robert Downey Jr.,
by his own description,

he was box office poison.

1996, the actor
violated his probation

when he fled
from a detox center.

Robert Downey Jr.
was coming off of some very

public drug troubles,
had been serving time in jail...

Let's face it,
this is not the worst thing

you've caught me doing.

When any actor joins a project,
they have to sign

an insurance bond.

People in
Robert Downey Jr.'s position

either are unable
to get insured

because there is such
a high risk

that something might go wrong,
or that insurance is just so expensive,

it's prohibitive
for the studio to do that.

But Robert Downey Jr.
wanted to prove

that he wasn't a risk
and did everything he could

to show them
he was a safe bet.

He even came in and did
a screen test...

Maybe next time you scramble
F-22s against me, I just...

might not play defense.

The screen test went a long way

to convincing Marvel
to hire him.

And that's all it took

as Robert Downey Jr.
secured the lead.

And I just, like,
hit the freaking roof.

This is, like,
serious big league shit now

where we got Robert Downey Jr.
in this movie?

So with the fate
of Marvel at stake,

Iron Man would proceed
with a relatively

inexperienced director
and a virtually

- uninsurable actor.
- It was a big risk.

What could possibly go wrong?

Robert Downey Jr.
so wanted to be Iron Man

that he agreed to take the role
for only $500,000,

plus a little more
if it was a hit,

and that left room
in the budget for Marvel

to shoot for the stars
with the remaining cast.

The person
that was paid the most

for the first Iron Man
was Terrance Howard.

You're about to make
a whole lot of people

around here real happy.

I loved
Terrance Howard as Rhodey.

- He had that edge about him.
- Next time, baby.

He was maybe
the hottest actor in that cast.

- How now? Who calls?
- For Pepper Potts,

they went with Gwyneth Paltrow.

The originally Pepper Potts,
who never appeared

in our stories, was sort of
a meek and mild girl.

I do anything and everything
that Mr. Stark requires.

In the comic,
we created Mrs. Arbogast

which Marvel Studios took
her personality

and stuck it
in Pepper Potts' body.

Including occasionally
taking out the trash.

- You know, the smart ass stuff?
- Also joining

the cast, Jeff Bridges
as Obadiah Stane--

a bad dude.

There's nothing
we can't do...

if we stick together
like your father and I.

Jon Favreau
also found a part

for his favorite actor... himself.

Here it is. This is it.
This is Happy Hogan.

Also, there would be
a small part

- for Clark Gregg.
- I'd gotten a call

from my agent saying,
"There's a role for you

in Iron Man."
And I just thought, "Oh, man.

Yeah, sure."
And they're like, "Well...

you know, don't get
your hopes up.

I think it's about three lines
or four lines

- and it's a guy named 'Agent.'"
- You need a new name for that.

- Yeah.
- I had recently had a movie

where I'd had a much bigger
part than that

and it had been cut out
so I was a little hesitant,

but it wasn't really
much of a question.

And with no more
questions on the cast,

production was ready
to start ramping up.

All they needed
was a completed script.

All the departments
are waiting

for this damn script
because they need

to go make the movie now.

You felt like, you know,
a little pressure.

Everyone is waiting
for those pages

to be slid under the door.
They would slide, like,

food under the door
and we'd slide the pages out.

For, like, you know,
a week and a half. Just crazy.

And it wasn't
small changes, either.

Major elements were still
being blown apart.

In the Marvel comics,

the biggest villain
for Iron Man is The Mandarin.

It's a caricature, it can come off
as a racial stereotype.

So they made a change
at the very last minute.

It was time
for Jeff Bridges to step up.

You gotta let me
handle this.

Jeff Bridges' character,
Obadiah Stane,

was supposed to be a
secondary villain in that film.

Couple months before shooting,
he was up

to the primary villain
which added

to the stress
and the pressure of them

rewriting the project
on the fly.

They were further
bogged down

with a request from the studio
to fit in references

to the larger Avengers
plot line that Marvel

had financially and publicly
committed to.

The Strategic
Homeland Intervention,

Enforcement
and Logistics Division.

S.H.I.E.L.D.
and all these other elements

from the larger universe.
It kept feeling like we were

bending ourselves
over backwards

to have these elements

that were going to matter
down the road.

They pleaded to simplify.

And that's not our thing.
That was Kevin's thing.

And at first,
Kevin didn't go for it,

but the writers persisted
both for this production

and also to protect
Kevin's vision

of Marvel movies to come.

We just want to tell
a simple story

about a screwed-up guy
trying to redeem himself.

If we can make you
fall in love with Tony,

and his humanity
in the first one,

they'll follow you anywhere
after that.

So let's just focus on him.

I know in my heart...

that it's right.

So Kevin relented,

but little
did the writers know

that their problems
had only just begun,

beginning when filming started
in March 2007.

I remember seeing
Downey Jr. walk on set

the first day he came in
and he was wearing this

Tony Stark kinda suit
and he had a fake AK-47.

I don't know
where he got it from.

And he walked in and said
he was here to kill Jon Favreau.

Is that weird?

And you knew there was
something cool in the making.

But for the writers,
Downey Jr.

was shooting holes
in their script constantly.

Robert, I think
he needs to explore a scene

in every facet before he's even
gonna attempt to throw down.

We're going to work
every scene to death.

Meanwhile,
the near-constant rewrites

made life particularly hard
on Art Director Susan Wexler

who had to plan out sets
months in advance.

We had started
building the cave

and then they were like,
"Oh, maybe we really don't

- need the cave."
- But when producers

saw how much work had
already been put into the set,

they were quick to pivot back.

They actually walked through
and went,

"Oh, okay. Maybe not."

And, plus, it just does make
sense 'cause otherwise

how is he
going to become Iron Man

if he's not in the cave?

But Tony Stark's
Mark I was far from

the only thing
developed in that cave,

as Favreau was
drawing parallels

from another beloved
sci-fi film.

Robocop, there's strong
parallels there, isn't there?

Drop the gun.
You are under arrest.

And not just a man in
a metal suit fighting bad guys.

From when Iron Man
takes his first few steps...

Just the klung, klung
of the feet.

...to when
he breaks down the door.

Countless other scenes
would pay tribute

to Robocop's rich legacy
in the sci-fi genre.

As it turns out,
Robocop was actually first

to pay homage to Iron Man
in this scene.

Will there be
anything else, sir?

And like Robocop,
Iron Man would rely

- heavily on practical effects.
- Go!

But the Iron Man suit
presented unique challenges.

The way I always explained

the classic Iron Man
was that it was microscopic

chainmail armor
with an electric current

running through it.
Much like Batman's rigid cape.

When they got to the movie,
they had to make it functional.

But, still,
they would need to rely

at least somewhat on CGI.

It became a real nice
hybrid I think.

- As much practical as possible.
- And... action!

And then CG when there was
no real other way.

And then try to use it
sparingly and really well.

The evolution
of digital VFX

would allow Favreau to elevate
the suit where needed

and pioneer effects for
superhero films going forward.

But as for the writers...

...well, they would need
a suit of armor, too,

to protect their feelings.

If you didn't leave your ego
at the door on this one,

you were gonna be screwed.
Stuff kept changing

and we rewrote every day
and rewrote every day.

Probably thousands of pages
of script.

It was really tough sometimes
'cause you were like,

"Are we just
rewriting to rewrite?

Are we just playing to play?
At some point, you know,

let's lock down a scene,
but stick to the story."

You start breaking the story
to please everyone,

you're gonna end up with shit.

Led by
the quick wit and energy

of Robert Downey Jr.,
the production

of Iron Man was possessed
by the spirit of improvisation.

I noticed a nimbleness
of, like, "Oh...

we're gonna shift this.
This is working.

Robert wants to do this.
We're gonna try this."

And, perhaps,
no one was more receptive

to this than Jon Favreau
who would re-block

whole scenes
on Robert's suggestions.

For the press conference scene

when Tony is rescued
from captivity

and he comes back,
we're working the scene,

it's okay, it's fine,
it's informational.

When Downey
reimagines a scene

with a simple added line...

Hey, would it be all right
if everyone...

sat down?
Why don't you just sit down?

You know, Tony tells everybody
to sit down.

He's outside the box,
this guy.

There's no rules.
We're all gonna sit

- and just have a chat.
- What's up with the love-in?

Don't look at me.
I don't know what he's up to.

Kinda made it
more confessional

and spoke to
what the scene was about.

It really worked
with the spirit of the film

which was driven,
I think,

by the spirit
of the journey of Tony Stark.

A journey that
continued throughout filming.

He would just rip scenes apart,
play with it,

"Throw this away.
Keep this."

I got a throttle between
my legs going, you know...

Just do what you wanna do.
Just leave me alone.

Smartest guy in the room.

Razor-sharp wit.
A little bit of trouble

and mischief.
It just felt like,

"This feels dialed in
right away."

So dialed in
that he was creating characters

- out of thin air.
- Okay, I'm sorry.

- Am I in your way?
- Like the silent

robots who helped Tony
develop the suit.

If you douse me prematurely,
I swear to God...

- I will donate you.
- Before filming,

- they had no personality.
- None of that was written.

That all kind of developed
while they were shooting the scenes.

But Downey
wasn't just expanding roles

for robots...
Clark Gregg's role of Agent

- also had potential.
- You're absolutely right.

He starts kind of riffing
a little bit

and that thing happens
that doesn't happen very often

where they started making
the part bigger.

They said,
"You know, we're gonna add

a few scenes for this guy.
He's got a name.

He's Agent Phil Coulson now."

I was like,
"I like the sound of that."

This isn't my first rodeo,
Mr. Stark.

They liked the dynamic
between Tony Stark and Coulson.

And while Clark Gregg
was surely happy

about the development,
this freeform process

wasn't everyone's
favorite way to work.

You had Jeff Bridges
feeling like he didn't know

what was going on.
New script pages

- were coming in every day.
- He was used to a more...

orderly and professional experience.

And that's just not
what Iron Man was.

Tony, no more of this
ready, fire, aim business.

Jeff Bridges famously
said he calmed himself down

by saying, "Calm down, man,
you're making

a $100 million student film."

With Jon Favreau
behind the wheel,

Iron Man was no student film.

In fact, Jon Favreau
was putting on a Master Class,

juggling an entire film crew
and a fluid script,

actor's egos, as well as
the crushing pressure

from Marvel
who were risking it all.

He wasn't always trying
to control situations.

It was like,
"Let things happen."

Just as much as he's an actor,

he's a director
and a writer

and he has a real instinct
for tone.

He had that sensibility
of knowing what people love

about movies and he really
wanted to spend more time

than we had on
when she changes the heart

out for the first time.

W-What do you want me to do?

On the table over there.
That is... irrelevant.

Everyone's like,
"Speed it up. Speed it up."

He didn't just motor through it.

- Wanna dance?
- Oh, no.

- All right, come on.
- Thank you.

I love that he
just let those scenes

play out in real time.
People love this.

Throughout the history
of movies, why all of a sudden

does everything need to be
crazy paced?

And just like Favreau
and Downey,

Kevin Feige
was also improvising,

finding little moments
to plant the seeds

- of future MCU storylines.
- Ms. Potts.

We do a couple of takes
and then they say,

"Okay, tell 'em you're from
the Strategic Homeland Intervention,

Enforcement
and Logistics Division."

- That's quite a mouthful.
- I know. We're working on it.

I thought,
"I think this is S.H.I.E.L.D.

They might be talking
about S.H.I.E.L.D."

Clark knew
S.H.I.E.L.D. from the comics.

It's a secret government agency
dealing with threats

- of an extraordinary nature.
- And I was like,

"You want me to memorize
that right now?"

But Kevin had more things

he wanted to make sure
were in the film.

It was really important to Kevin
to smash the rules

and to do something off rhythm
in the superhero world.

And he had
an opportunity to do that

with three... simple... words.

- I am Iron Man.
- I am Iron Man.

Like, outing himself
to the public.

I'm just gonna say,
in all humility,

it wasn't us.
We didn't come up with that.

It was written in an earlier
draft of Iron Man.

I remember Kevin saying,
"We're, like, hell-bent

on that moment
being in the movie."

Secret identities worked
when I did comics.

When you have a cell phone now,
you know,

whatever you do, they're gonna
take a picture of you.

Cell phones have killed
secret identities.

Production on

Iron Man
would wrap in Las Vegas.

And that's the scene
we wrote in an hour

in Starbucks and that was, like,
weirdly the least

re-written scene
of the whole show.

And with production wrapped,

Kevin Feige
had one last scene

he wanted
to sneak into the film.

Kevin was calling up
Nick Fury.

Who the hell is that?

Uh, no not that one.

Nick Fury.
Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In the original Marvel comics,

Nick Fury is a white guy
who's an actual soldier.

In the Ultimates line,
he was a guy who looked

a hell of a lot like
Samuel L. Jackson.

I had Colin Powell
actually in my head

when I had him in X-Men.
I was thinking,

"What would Nick Fury
be like in real life?"

You know,
somebody who does that job

where he's Director
of National Security.

And then whenever Bryan
was redesigning him,

he said, "What if I shave
his head, you know?

And have him looking a bit
more like Sam Jackson?"

Comic artist Bryan Hitch

had unintentionally
set up Samuel L. Jackson

for any future Nick Fury role.

Fans had long been casting
Samuel L. Jackson

as Nick Fury and they decided,
"Let's do it for real."

I'm here to talk to you about
the Avenger Initiative.

This cameo was shot
kind of in secret.

They didn't want this
post-credit scene to get out.

By going so far
as to include

a post-credit scene
on Iron Man,

Feige had committed Marvel
to The Avengers

and a larger
cinematic universe.

Whether Iron Man tanked or not,
for Marvel,

there was no going back.

It was like Babe Ruth
starting the baseball season

by saying, "When I'm here
for the World Series,

I'm gonna hit the ball there."
But he had no guarantee

that he was ever
going to make the World Series

when they shot that scene.

With Marvel
about to open the portal

into an entire universe,
Feige knew

he had to prime the fan base.

So at the 2007 Comic-Con,
Iron Man

made a surprise appearance
in a teaser.

These are the ideal places
and the ideal audience

to go and see these films with.

Half of the audience are
actually dressed up as Iron Man.

I knew that Iron Man
was going to be a hit

from that first trailer.

It's the great lead-up

and it's him being snarky
and sarcastic and funny.

Mr. Stark, you've been called
the da Vinci of our time.

- What do you say to that?
- Absolutely ridiculous.

- I don't paint.
- And they're playing

the Black Sabbath
Iron Man riff.

And they end with him
and the planes.

Anticipation was high,

but with a year
still to go in post,

Iron Man's true test
was on the horizon.

Iron Man was released
on May 2nd, 2008

and the buzz from Comic-Con
helped Iron Man

deliver at the box office.

It opens
just under $100 million.

Well beyond estimates.

For audiences
that may have never heard

of Iron Man before,
the film was resonating.

One of the most brilliant
adaptations from comics to film.

Certainly one of my
all-time favorites.

Everything about it--
the tone, the look.

And the fact
that Downey Jr. was in the mask

during some of the film's
most exciting moments

wasn't a downside. Instead...

That's just an opportunity
to problem solve.

How they solved it,
as we all know,

is that we see inside the mask.
That was a genius move.

And for some,
Iron Man was a long time coming.

There was a landing sequence.

It was a bird's-eye shot
of him coming down

like this, right?
I must've drawn that shot

a hundred times in the comics

and to see it
come to life like that?

Just the little hair on the back
of your neck kinda stands up.

It's such an amazing feeling.

Iron Man
wasn't just a success,

it was revolutionary.

In every genre,
there's an "it" moment.

In science fiction movies,
that "it" moment

was Star Wars.

There was science fiction films
before Star Wars

and science fiction films
after Star Wars.

In the superhero genre,
Iron Man...

changed everything.

But really all Iron Man did

was follow the basic principles
that Stan Lee

laid out
all those decades before.

Stan Lee described it as being

"one DNA strand
away from reality."

And Iron Man truly was.

It's a very grownup film.

You know,
for a comic book movie.

Tony Stark
was a proper character.

This was like a real person.

What Iron Man proved
was that if you can create

a really compelling character...

There's no art opening.
There is no benefit.

There is nothing to sign.
There's the next mission.

...you can build
a great movie about them.

And it also proved
that for Jon Favreau

and Kevin Feige,
they were right to take

the risk on Downey.

That's also a strength
of Kevin's as well,

- picking the right people.
- To see someone

like Robert Downey Jr.
take the risk that he took

and come out on top
the way he did,

it's pretty admirable.

If another actor
plays Iron Man,

it's not quite the same
because he created that.

Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man.

Keep the skies clear.

They took a character
that no one outside of comics

really had a clue about
and then within a month

of Iron Man being out there,
you could say to them,

"Who's Tony Stark?"
And they would know.

Fergus and Ostby's insistence

on streamlining
had worked.

People were connecting
with Tony's story,

but there were some
die-hard fans who were angry

that the film was straying
from the source material.

There was a little bit
of an outcry after Iron Man

where people were like,
"Who is this?

This Coulson?
This is not in the comics."

And I thought, "These bastards
are gonna get me killed off."

While Agent Coulson's
future was uncertain,

Clark Gregg was just happy
he made the final cut

and was part of history.

I really feel like
in the template of Iron Man one

is the DNA that has carried

- the MCU so far.
- The fact that

that movie was so successful,
it was a testament

to how well Marvel had
internalized the lessons

for how you make
an effective superhero film.

They need to be done
by us, for us, and for the fans.

Feige and Marvel's
gamble had paid off big time

and the Marvel
cinematic universe--or MCU,

had officially launched

and with the post-credit scene,
which had been shrouded

in secrecy...

To the point that when
they screened

the film for press at the time,

the post-credit scene
was not on the film.

...Kevin got
to tease audiences

with his grand plan.

When you get
to a post-credit sequence

- and it says...
- I'm here to talk to you

about The Avenger Initiative.

...half the people are going,
"Oh, no!

Oh, my God!
It's gonna be The Avengers!"

And the other half are going,
"What is it? What is it?"

And it really builds the energy
to what's coming next.

So much so,
that post-credit scene

in Iron Man became
its own profitable movie

within a profitable movie.

Because most people left the cinema

before the credits finished
and they didn't see this

and then they paid again
to come back and see it.

One thing's for sure,

it left the audience
wanting more

of what Marvel was offering.

Iron Man one set out a trajectory
that I wanted to see more of.

And thanks
to the success of Iron Man,

there'll be much more to see.

That was how Iron Man 2,
Captain America,

and Thor got greenlit.
If that movie had tanked,

none of those movies
would've happened.

But, before we get
ahead of ourselves,

we need to check in
with the other movie

that the new
Marvel Studios greenlit

because, as you'll remember,
in hedging their bets,

The Incredible Hulk
had started production

a mere week
after Iron Man,

but it was far
from smooth sailing

and it turned out that
nobody liked Edward Norton

- when he was angry.
- It's rumored that Norton

angered a lot of people on set.