Robert Downey Jr. grateful the 'lunatics were allowed to run the asylum' on Iron Man

Robert Downey Jr. is grateful that he and Jon Favreau were allowed freedom when making Iron Man.

The 2008 movie, in which Downey Jr. played "genius playboy billionaire philanthropist" Tony Stark, was a critical and commercial success for Marvel and earned $585 million at the box office.

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It was the initial building block for the MCU as Thor and Captain America movies would soon follow, as would The Avengers Infinity Saga which would dominate cinema over the next 15 years.

Before its release, Iron Man was not viewed as one of the more popular superheroes, akin to Superman, Batman or Spider-Man, and Downey Jr. believes this is why Marvel allowed Favreau to press ahead with his own vision.

When asked at The Hollywood Reporter's Actor Roundtable whether he had to pause before jumping into Iron Man, he responded:

"No, because anyone who knows  Jon Favreau — I remember seeing Swingers, and that monologue he has, and I was like, 'And he wrote this? Who is this guy?' Also, he went to Bronx Science, and he was doing the Improv in Chicago, and we’re both from Queens?

"We were meant to do this thing. Also, there was no real certainty that this was even going to take off. Iron Man was a second-tier hero. They (Marvel) let the lunatics run the asylum for a little while, so it was completely an indie approach to a genre movie to begin with. "

Kevin Feige though Iron Man would kill the MCU

Kevin Feige, the godfather of the MCU, had major concerns that the project would fail,, as he was unhappy with how Iron Man was developing.

“There was a moment in post-production when everything seemed very tenuous and bleak," he says in the The Art of Iron Man book.

"We hadn’t settled into a satisfying cut, and the effects weren’t yet landing right. It is an awful period in the process when, after years of hard work, you are struck with the lingering fear that, in spite of unflagging dedication and meticulous planning, the whole thing might go pear-shaped.”

Of course, Feige needn't have worried as Iron Man catalysed the multi-billion dollar MCU empire which is still running to this day.