The creators behind Wednesday have revealed that they worked on an Iron Man script years before Robert Downey Jr. stepped into the Marvel role – and Tom Cruise was once floated as a potential top pick to play Tony Stark.
"[Marvel Studios founder] Avi Arad had come to us after [we wrote the story on] Spider-Man 2," Al Gough said on how the wheels started turning on Iron Man (via Happy Sad Confused).
"After Spider-Man 2, they say, 'guys, we've got another crown jewel – which is Iron Man,'" fellow creator Miles Millar recalled.
Far from the billion-dollar behemoth that Marvel Studios became, Iron Man was pitched at a satellite office out of Arad's Toy Biz company. There was another roadblock, one that ultimately led to the script being tossed out: New Line Cinema, not Marvel, held the rights to an Iron Man movie, in much the same way Spider-Man film rights were licensed out to Sony.
Gough said, "To be honest with you, I hadn't heard of Iron Man. Avi said, 'Perfect. Here's what he is: he's a billionaire who sells weapons, he's got an alcohol problem. There was an accident, now he's trying to make it work, make it better."
He continued, "So, we did a draft, several drafts. We worked on that for probably a year. We went in with Kevin [Feige] and Avi, and I guess [New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye] had read it. It's an interesting thing with generations trying to still connect with what a superhero is. He got all tied up that Iron Man could fly, because Superman could fly… we all sort of walked out of the meeting like, 'We don't think this is going to happen here.'"
The rest, as they say, is history. Marvel Studios eventually regained the rights to Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr. swaggered into the MCU and launched a pop culture phenomenon.
Except, it could have been very different – if New Line got their first choice.
"They wanted Tom Cruise, and I think Cruise was interested," Millar said.
For more on the current day MCU, check out our guides to Avengers: Doomsday and Marvel Phase 6. Wednesday, meanwhile, is continuing on Netflix. For that, you'll need the Wednesday season 2 release schedule.
