Iron Man had all the class, quirks, genius, and fun to birth one of the greatest film franchises in cinematic history.
The movie that started it all. That created the personality of a multi-billion dollar entertainment behemoth. That introduced the world to the first of many characters that have become household names and cultural icons. Iron Man stormed on the screen with a lead actor that Hollywood had given up on and a small start-up studio without a single movie under its belt backed by Disney, who had little to no live-action comic experience of their own. But director Jon Favreau’s adlibbed approach leveraged the strengths of his cast and created a world that was simultaneously realistic and magical - where a man could build a flying suit of armor, or a Thunder god could fall in love with a quirky mortal. Many forget that Robert Downey Jr’s personal struggles had left him blacklisted by many in Hollywood, making his casting a risky stroke of brilliance. The result of all this was precisely the lightning in a bottle needed to birth the Marvel Cinematic Universe.