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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

I know Marvel is going in a more cosmic and multiversal path. But, Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer could have been a really cool big bad over multiple films

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

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

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.

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.

I really really like Iron Man 2. It's probably one of my favorite mcu films. The storyline of Tony struggling/ almost falling apart whilst being the hero Iron Man was always really interesting to me though and I would've enjoyed seeing more of that too.

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

No shade at Don, but I think Terrence's performance was better. Their friendship seemed more genuine and he was always concerned for his friend. With Don, it felt like a disconnect.

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.

I'm honestly not too bummed that they didn't fully adapt the "Demon in a Bootle" story considering that RDJ had just cleaned up his act and doing something like that would have brought him back to a dark place in his life.

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’ve never hated this movie. Same for the third one and Incredible Hulk. I find them all enjoyable

Gotta be honest, I rewatched iron man 2 a year ago and really liked it 🤷‍♂️ it just works for me

Marvel has so many villains. Iron Man's are fairly obscure, but Favreau reworking them for the big screen would have been great to see. I wonder who else Hammer would have created. Blizzard? Crimson Dynamo? Instead executives got in the way. Always fascinating to see what some movies could have been.

I love the Iron Man trilogy, I own it on Blu-ray and will be watching it tonight because of this video! Thank you.

That was the very first Graphic Novel I ever brought. I was 9 when I brought it so a lot of the themes and concepts went over my head. As I grew to be an adult and found my own addictions the novel really helped me get clean. When I heard RDJ got cast I was super excited and really hoped they would do that story. It's nice that John was seriously considering it before Lord Kevin interfered. I can understand RDJ's wife's concerns. I hope one day someone has the vision and the clout to make it into a movie.

I guess that my biggest complain about the Iron Man sequels is the fact that Ramin Djawadi (the first film's composer) didn´t come back for Iron Man 2 and 3; John Debney's theme (Iron Man 2) is basically the Total recall main theme, and Brian Tyler's (Iron Man 3) while great and memorable, I feel something's lackin'

Actually Jon Faverou was still involved with Iron Man 3, he was a producer on it and he still played Happy Hogan in that film. You could argue the reason why Happy was like in a coma after the Chinese Theater incident through the rest of the movie is probably because Jon had arguments between him & Feige.

Mikey Rourke is so real for wanting a bird on his shoulder

in another universe, this would have been the best iron man film with whiplash being one of the bets villains of the MCU.

Ngl one big part for me was Terrence Howard not being there. I loved seeing him in ironman 1, been a fan since hustle and flow.

Dude you’ve come really far, it warms my heart you’re being recognized to the likes of the big guys; you’ll might get a million within the end of the year

“Cmon mayne let’s go save the world” Terrence voice 🤣

To be fair, an update of the Mandarin is tricky, and it really is probably better that they didn't put him in #2 if they hadn't figured out how to tread the line yet. And despite Black Widow being forced in...she's honestly the best part of the movie! They still managed to work around all the rough edges here, much better than the same problems when they popped up later in films like Multiverse of Madness (forced debut, villain change, story not finished, rushed, etc.)

Kinda crazy how Iron Man 2 was rushed yet it’s still better than the shit they push out now

i’ll be honest. 13 year old me wanted to see drunk tony stark. i would’ve loved that movie. what did executives think 13 year olds watch?? disney channel? we watched it’s always sunny and family guy.

Asides from how it's so influential, I never really LOVED The Iron Man films, but did kind of like this one even though it could be better

I'd definitely like a director's cut of this.

They left out the biggest story arc in Ironman that defines his entire character, lmao. Instead we got a Tony who drank too much at his party because he was mad, big deal.

Absolutely loved how you showed us the alternate ending i had heard about it but had foggy details thru articles it was great seeing it here

I’ll never, ever agree that Iron Man 2 was anything less than very good. I’ve never understood people being disappointed in it.

Phase 1 of Marvel was good for its time and amazing to witness, but part of me will always wish we got the original versions of Favreau's Iron Man trilogy and most of all Edgar Wright's Ant-Man. I'll always favor the more grounded comic adaptations with some slight comic book flair. If the multiverse theory is real I'd like to think that somewhere out there, they exist and we might actually have a way to see them.

I would love to see a "Leaving Las Vegas" version of Iron Man 2.... Great video as always B&B

Mickey's performance was honestly my fav thing about it His extra scenes woulda been goated tbh

I'm really hung up on what Vanko's original arc was going to be. There's so much great things about him, and I love the tracksuit makeshift whips

Let’s be honest my ass Iron Man 2 lived up to my expectations and it was hands down one of the best MCU films and it was Iron Man 3 that didn’t live up to my expectations

The video ended and I was like man… I absolutely could’ve gone with a solid 30 more minutes of this

The Iron Man 2 we got was ok pretty good to see but the one that was planned would've been amazing probably would have helped make Iron Man the MCU's strong trilogy

I watch a lot of channels that do breakdowns of movies, especially superhero stuff. I’m glad I found your channel this morning, great video!

With all the scenarios they can up with, how have we never got "What If... Iron Man fought Wenwu"? The episode writes itself!

Idk about you, but this movie brought so much nostalgia to 8 year old me. Arguably the bigger, badder/Empire Strikes Back of the awesome classic. + a great story when your grown up and down.

I love learning about these Easter Eggs: with Pop-Up Video vibes. New sub!

The Infinity Saga was an accidental miracle. A bunch of very lucky moments combined. Shame the luck recently ran out 😭

“Ivania…. Raaahh Rahhhh!!!” 😂

Great job as always mate!

The Multiverse is a fantastic chance to bring back Terrence Howard and let him be War Machine.

MCU and Disney are thinking money over everything... take your time and let art manifest

i really enjoyed this one! Keep them coming! 🙌

Thanks for the video ❤

Amazing video very complete investigation work, thank you for making it!

been waiting all morning another banger boss man as always

I liked the version we got but this is interesting. I’d be really interested in what we might’ve seen in Iron Man 3 had Favreau stayed

Demon and Armor Wars are the two stories i wish they told, reservations could have been made if RDJ was concerned about the script. I feel as if Whiplash was the sole villain and they made Hammer an Anti Fury making him and offer to fund his technology would have been neat and save Hammer up as another foil down the road and give Whiplash his revenge against Stark.

I don't understand the hate for Iron Man 2. I love it and find it perfect.Sure, I could have done without the scene where he went to the bathroom in his armor, but that's just a tiny thing. I love love love that whole thing with his father and the world expo model and the improvised particle accelerator and creating a new element - and basically all the rest of the stuff as well. I just think it works. It's a 10/10 MCU movie to me. The Iron Man trilogy is one of the greatest superhero trilogies ever.

Amazing. I'm so glad I found your channel

I have an idea. If Favreau wanted to make the Mandarin part of the trilogy then it would be this, Make Trevor Slattery the mandarin. But He isn't technically the mandarin but rather more of a different incarnation that took inspiration from the myth itself. A ruthless, Manipulative and gritty villain. Instead of magic he relies on modern technology to bring the magic to life. His design would have been like iron monger's but more advanced as the mark 42. The armor and the rings would have been designed artificially by AIM

Keep em coming!

Thank you for giving a little more insight into Howard's exit from IM2. His claim that Downey took his paycheck never made sense. The first movie made $585 million, much more than Marvel execs expected, so they had the $ to pay both Downey & Howard their asking prices, if they wanted to. I've heard that Favreau found him difficult and cut his screen time back. Also, I've seen interviews with Howard, when he was doing promo for IM, where he said that he hoped the 2nd movie would address more real world political issues, so I would say that there were creative differences. Howard also had a couple of arrests for assault since 2008, his temper seems to be a problem, so he never would have made it very far in the franchise anyway.

I'm glad Downey Jr. finally put himself in a real movie last year with Oppenheimer and actually played a character and not just himself. Haven't done that for 15 years. Good for him.

Fantastic historical research and condensed into a wonderfully delectably consumable vid!

Iron Man 2: Demon in a Bottle would have been much better than what we got. Perhaps the film should have been this: Post revealing his dual life as Iron Man to the world, Tony is at the height of his popularity. However, Tony has a problem - the very artefact designed to keep him alive, is also killing him, and Tony needs to find a new element to cure this issue. Tony turns to alcohol to cope with this stress, pushing everyone away from him. He begins to become a liability in the field, causing the government to plan to obtain his suit of armour. The villain story can remain the same, however perhaps Justin Hammer’s role is omitted, and in its place we get to explore more time with Vanko and his journey to Whiplash. James Rhodes would still be able to become War Machine, due to Tony’s alcoholism making him unfit to be Iron Man. At the end, Tony has help from Pepper after finally coming clean, and ends up coming up with a new element and him and Rhodes take down Whiplash together, proving Tony is fit to be Iron Man. Omitting the SHIELD and Avengers set ups, as well as the Justin Hammer plot lines, I feel would have made a much more succinct and streamlined story.

I love Iron Man 2 I know alot of people hate on it,but it's my Favorite MCU movie 😅 I know I'll catch heat for that but I stand by it all day long 😊

I was so disappointed when they didn’t follow through on the “Demon in a Bottle”, storyline, when clearly, they were building up to it in the first movie. The story in the comics expanding my collection from all DC to a wallet-busting combination of DC and Marvel.

The first Ironman is definitely the best of the 3, but Ironman 2 has always been my favorite. The scene when Tony first meets Ivan and armors-up with the suitcase suit was so great. However, I am curious to see how the movie would have turned out if Jon Favreau had been given complete freedom and was allowed to stick to his original vision and really utilize the Demon In A Bottle story.

Since the MCU has gone heavily into the multiverse, it would be cool if all of these casting possibilities that did not happen got turned into multiverse variants - Emily Blunt as a Natasha Romanova variant, Sam Rockwell as a Tony Stark variant, and bring back Terrance Howard as a James Rhodes variant.

Bullets&Blockbusters, Always awesome to hear your insight into famous unmade movies and alternate versions of existing movies. An interesting what if film idea that would be cool to hear your thoughts on is some of the unmade Marvel Fox Movie's they had in development throughout the late 2000's and early 2010's until the Disney buy out in 2019. Whether that be the many unmade X-Men spin off films of various characters such as Magneto, Beast, Kitty Pryde, Gambit, and Multiple Man. Matthew Vaughn's plan for his X-trilogy after First Class before Bryan Singer came back with Days of Future Past. The original two part plan for Dark Phoenix 2019. Any of the unmade Fantastic Four films prior to 2005, the sequels for the 05 and 15 films, Silver Surfer solo film, and Doctor Doom solo film. The Daredevil 1970's Trilogy that was pitched before Marvel got the rights back and made the Netflix show. The New Mutants Trilogy. Lastly, The Civil War movie from the early 2010's featuring the X-Men, Daredevil, Fantastic Four and Deadpool. Such an interesting idea at the time considering this was the first time Fox thought about crossing over all their Marvel IP. Hope some of these video ideas could be inspiring for you.

"send em flowers" is fucking hilarious I'm sad we didn't get that opening 😂😂

This is why i am still shocked to this day the MCU got as successful as it did, and didnt end up the same fate as the TASMverse and the Dark Universe. Brutally honestly, i think it wouldve been better, if they have favreau more time, and had the film be released in Phase 2 instead. I think thay would've been better. Also, i love Mickey Rourke, but i think Justin Hammer shouldve been the sole main antagonist, dont believe me that that couldnt work? Watched NandovMovies video on Justin Hammer. I think it wouldve been cool if we got a Black Widow movie in Phase 1 instead of Iron Man 2. Though, if thay happened, we wouldve never had gotten the movie Chef, so....theres that. We also would not have gotten Jungle Book 2016 or the Mandalorian.....so maybe everything happening as it did was a blessing in disguise. Not to mention, if they did Demon in a Bottle proper, RDJ wouldnt return because he'd probably feel uncomfortable basically reliving his struggle with his own demons.

Great job can't wait for more

the 'cast' and 'roll' visuals were 🔥

Emily Blunt would've been an amazing black widow

The "Armor Wars" storyline should have been the plot of Iron Man 2. Like an extension of the Gulmira scene from the 1st movie where Tony destroys his own weapons, but applied to copies of his own armors scattered throughout the world. And the actual plot used in Iron Man 2 - Tony being on the verge of dying due to palladium poisoning - should have been the story for Iron Man 3, in order to give the concept of the initial arc reactor some mileage (it was dispatched too soon in my opinion). Finally, in order to justify Mark 50's nanotech leap in Infinity War, the "Extremis" arc from the actual Iron Man 3 should have been used for an Iron Man 4 instead, in a post-Civil War context where Tony feels guilty for the destruction caused by the Avengers, Rhodey getting injured, and feeling like he needs to become better prepared and more advanced than ever.

after Iron Man 2 , Tony spends every film oscillating between accidentally creating more supervillains and desperately trying to stop being Iron Man -OSP Speaking to Vanity Fair, Joe and Anthony Russo, who directed Downey in three of his Marvel Cinematic Universe appearances, explained how the actor kept the character fresh for so long. "When he'll come back to set, Robert is famous for throwing the plan out the window and climbing on top of the couch and whatever, sort of going off-book," Joe said. "He does this because he likes to surprise himself. He likes to keep things fresh. He lights up for that." "There's no other way that he could have played that character for 10 movies unless he was doing that," Anthony added. "Robert has certainly lived a complicated life. He understands the stakes, he understands loss, he understands the turns life can take between ups and downs. He's always looking for that level of depth, that level of complexity. I think he knows that's what we all come to movies for in the first place." Marvel Studios Firmly Shuts Down Iron Man's Return During the same interview, dubbed "Robert Downey Jr.'s Third Act," Kevin Feige debunked rumors that Marvel Studios was considering bringing Stark back into the multiverse storyline. "We are going to keep [Iron Man's death] and not touch that moment again," Feige explained. "We all worked very hard for many years to get to that. We would never want to magically undo it in any way," he added, referencing Tony Stark's character growth over the years.-CBR

The ghost being made from Hammer tech would have been great

I don't know, think was a worthy sequel with an amazing villain. He's actually scary, yet also very comic book like. I don't know what happened, but now we have... Kang.

I actually really enjoy Iron Man 2, but really think the alcoholism plot would have been great. Hindsight is 20/20 but nobody remembers or even talks about Hancock.

The excuses given to kick out Terrance Howard and say he was difficult to work with because of his frustration to get paid less than what he was worth, especially after having done the first film and it being such a success. It's disgusting and unjust what Marvel did to the guy and then look to save face by saying they cut his parts because it didn't work and he was difficult to work with.

"a 13 year old kid doesn't want to see drunken tony stark" i feel like pretty much any 13 year old would want to see that.

Blame for Disney for doing this.

Great video.

I really wished they would have went for it. That deleted opening scene is one of my favorite Iron Man scenes.

What's up with Marvel cutting legit good scenes with their villains? Loki has been a victim of this multiple times. Having scenes that gave him more depth (which fell in line with how he ended up later) just.... Cut. And I'll assume too that, other villains suffered a similar fate.

I appreciate you pronouncing Mark Millar's last name correctly!

Funny to think the entire MCU and even all of Marvel could have been way different if Marvel wasn’t as forceful as they were for this Movie.

"I want my bird"--'KFC ad immediately plays'

For me in my opinion, I honestly don't prefer Iron Man 2 being darker and mature as if it would make the movie better. I respect your opinion, but in my opinion, the original tone of Iron Man 2 is already better enough, it just needs better writing of characters and storytelling. I still prefer Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, she was so badass and I've always loved her since I was a young boy. And also, as a older fan of Marvel and Iron Man, I see nothing wrong with Iron Man 2 or just Marvel in general being made for kids/younger audience as well, when Marvel has always been a franchise for everyone of all ages. I loved Marvel when I was a kid, I was a 8 year old boy when watching Iron Man 2, Iron Man and Black Widow were definitely my favourite characters I've loved in the movie, younger audiences deserves the same enjoyment from Marvel and that's one of the things why I love about the Marvel Cinematic Universe(expect for a majority of phase 4, because it sucks in my taste), they are made to be for the whole family of all ages(kids and adults) to enjoy together.

Good stuff!