The Original Plans for Iron Man 2

With stories like this it's nothing short of a miracle that the MCU even happened, and didn't crash and burn years before it even got to The Avengers.

A fully committed demon in the bottle story by Jon and RDJ, would have been one of the greatest films of all time. Logan was a success because they didn’t worry about other storylines or “toy” sales

Ironically the Mandarin as portrayed in the first half of Iron Man 3, as a terrorist mastermind, would have worked great in the “more grounded approach” Favreu had in mind. And, if wanted or needed, they could have had him find the rings later once the mystical elements were introduced to the MCU.

Man, I would love to see what Favreau’s self-contained trilogy plan would’ve been, it would’ve been really cool to see his vision, play out specially, with how far away better the first Iron Man is to the second and third installments.

My theory is that “Chef” by Favreau is a coded description of the making of Iron Man 2 where a high powered money man keeps forcing the chef to rush things and change his vision for the restaurant

Iron Man 2 might have turned out better if it came out in Phase 2 like the other MCU first sequels. That would have given more time for planning, and maybe even Terrence Howard would have returned without any problems

Ironically, Terrance Howard missed out on making way more money due to his impatience. The way he threw everyone under the bus afterwards says a lot about working with him.

Fun fact- Obadiah Stane was supposed to survive Iron Man 1, but Marvel Studios changed it at the last minute, and Jeff Bridges didn't learn his character was going to die until it came time to film his death scene. Had he lived, we would have seen him in either Iron Man 2 or 3 (or both). I really like the idea of Justin Hammer creating multiple villains (and actually went into the film when it came out hoping this would be the case); I think RDJ messed up by bringing in Mickey Rourke for what logically should have been a minor villain role, if now they had to turn Whiplash of all people into a major villain (and the original death scene sucks so I'm glad they got rid of it, even if they replaced it with something more generic). Justin Hammer should have been the main villain and he should have had three or four supervillain mooks sent to rob and kill Tony Stark during his alcohol problems, none of whom needed much development. You could still easily incorporate Black Widow and Nick Fury into a story like that as well (if anything, that's exactly the sort of movie Tony would need help for), and presumably a proper Mandarin could have been in the background bossing Hammer around. Basically, main problem seems to be that they focused too much on star power rather than the story- having said that, I've seen Iron Man 2 multiple times and it does have a lot of good dialogue, drama and character moments, so while it's a little jumbled and uneven it's still a pretty decent movie overall; it's just a shame that it could have been much better.

If they wanted they could still do Jon Favreau vision of Iron Man 2 with the Demon in the Bottle storyline via the What If? Series you can call if “What If Tony Never Conquered His Demons?” Make an hour long episode I’m pretty sure Jon would love to do it if given free reign and I’m sure RDJ would voice it himself considering they were both disappointed with how Iron Man 2 came out

Really solid point highlighting the similarities between Marvel taking a chance on both RDJ and Rourke. Mickey left an impression on me, and I feel like if they would have let him cut loose they might have had something really special.

Ironman's main story is that he's an alcoholic who overcomes his alcoholism, it's wild they didn't go through with it, but it makes sense because it was supposed to be made for kids and merchandising, but still! It's Ironman's main story arc, and we got a water down version of it where he only binged drank for a weekend, basically.

I really appreciate that you don't just talk about the movie that wasn't made, but other things that happen during production that could have changed it. Love the channel!

Emily Blunt as Black Widow would have been FANTASTIC. I love Scarjo but Emily Blunt is amazing

Honestly, I still really love the Iron Man trilogy. Mainly because of nostalgia, and I feel like there's some warmth to these movies, and they're just a really fun time. They're by no means perfect, but they're perfect to me.

“Ayo I’m war Machine mayne😂🤣🤣 “ Terrance Howard.

In the comics I read in the 1980s and 1990s, I loved that Iron Man's weakness is Alcohol. Yes, it's his real life Kryptonite.

I worked pre and postviz on IM 2, and I can agree that it was bonkers at the last minute. They totally shot the different ending and we had to reuse exploded plates and repaint in unexploded areas to kloodge together an ending where they kamehamehad together to kill him. Wacky times. Plus...Genndy Tartakovsky directed the first version of the Japanese Gardens sequence...Genndy rules.

I wished Vanko stayed as Whiplash trough the whole movie instead of warping into the not so Crimson Dynamo. It could have been a two on two fight of Iron Man and War Machine vs Whiplash and Titanium Man with Hammer secretly remote piloting the TM suit or something

I really liked Iron Man 2, but it is really interesting that there was a darker story. Keep up the hard work!

I still quite like Whiplash in this movie. Sure he was a combo of Crimson Dynamo and Whiplash but taking the MCU as a whole as we have it now, he was still the only person to replicate an Iron Man suit (aside from Ironheart right now). And it's a shame that lots of his scenes was cut. I hope Armor Wars has Titanium Man or something.