A Cancelled Marvel Movie Could Have Starred Robert Downey Jr. Before Iron Man

It’s easy to forget that Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man” was considered something of a risk when it was released in 2008. Marvel hadn’t yet been purchased by Disney at that point, while the onslaught of the eventual Marvel Cinematic Universe was but a glint in Favreau’s eye. When he included a cameo appearance from Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, delivering lines about the Avengers Initiative, Favreau meant for it to serve as nothing more than a wink to fans. It wasn’t until the following year that Disney purchased Marvel and put plans for the Avengers into proper motion.

Robert Downey Jr. starred as Tony Stark/Iron Man, and the film proved to be a boon for his career. The actor has spoken very openly about how the years 1996 to 2001 were a time of intense substance abuse for him, culminating in him finally going to rehab in November 2001 after eating a terrible burger (an incident that inspired an infamous moment in “Iron Man”). Downey went on to land several amazing roles from 2001 to 2008, of course (please go watch “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”), but nothing was a massive hit until “Iron Man.” He went on to become one of the world’s most recognized stars and won an Oscar for his performance in the film “Oppenheimer” some four years after ending his stint as Tony Stark in 2019. (The character died in that year’s “Avengers: Endgame.”)

Prior to “Iron Man,” however, Downey was being considered for another Marvel Comics project. In a 2009 interview with GizmodoPaul McGuigan — the director of “Lucky Number Slevin” and “Push” (no relation to the guy from Oasis) — talked about how he was gunning to make a Deathlok feature film. If McGuigan had gotten his way, Downey would have played Marvel’s cyborg character.

A live-action Deathlok would eventually be portrayed by J. August Richards on the TV series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” The character debuted in Marvel Comics in 1974 and gained new fame in 1990 when he was rebooted with a fresh origin story. The character, in his original iteration, was an American soldier killed on the battlefield before being resurrected in cyborg form by a twisted scientist many years in the future. He fights the evils of a futuristic dystopian corporate America, all while having a conversation with an intelligent computer that shares his brain. In all his iterations, Deathlok is a Black man.

In the Gizmodo interview, McGuigan admitted that the rumors of his “Deathlok” movie were true. There had been a Deathlok film in the works since the early 1990s. The project eventually moved to Paramount in 2001, with Lee Tamahori attached to direct. When that version of the movie fell through, McGuigan took over. (This was about 2004.) The plan was for McGuigan to direct, with screenwriter David Self (“The Haunting,” “Road to Perdition”) finishing off the script.

It wasn’t to be, unfortunately, which is too bad; McGuigan was really into the concept and liked the “computer voice inside the cyborg’s head” angle. As he put it:

“I was really into it, but Marvel changed their mind. (…) In a way, it felt like ‘Knight Rider,’ where you have the machine talking to him. (…) The script was really good. David Self is no slouch, he’s a great screenwriter. And the whole idea of nanotechnology was fascinating.”

McGuigan went on to reveal some of his ideas for the film. The villainous scientist character would have been more whimsical and zany, inventing Deathlok as a way to be remembered by history. And yes, McGuigan felt Downey would have been great in the role (even though he’s white).

This interview was conducted before Deathlok appeared on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” so McGuigan couldn’t comment on that yet.