Culture news This famous MCU actor should have starred in Nolan’s Batman Begins, but fate decided otherwise
Robert Downey Jr, the legendary Iron-Man, could have had his first collaboration with Christopher Nolan long before Oppenheimer.
Since his interpretation of Iron-Man in Avengers Endgame, which closed phase 3 of the MCU, Robert Downey Jr has become the icon of an entire generation. But in the cinema, we know how difficult it is to part with a role that we have played for years. Fortunately, with his performance in Christopher Nolan’s highly rated Oppenheimer, Robert Downey Jr was able to show another side of his acting. Questioned by American media a few days ago, the actor said that he could have played in another of the director’s films, almost 20 years ago.
A terrible Iron Man
Interviewed on February 2 by the American CinemathequeRobert Downey Jr claimed to have been approached by Christopher Nolan to star in one of his films. It was Batman Begins released in 2005. In this feature film which serves as the first episode of the Batman trilogy Dark Knight, we can see many characters from the Dark Knight universe. There is obviously the hero (Christian Bale), his mentor and enemy Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Nesson) and also the scarecrow. It is the latter who could have been played by Robert Downey Jr, three years before becoming Marvel’s mascot. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it was Cillian Murphy who got the role, ironic when we know that the two men found themselves headliningOppenheimer.
And after ?
As said before, it’s hard for an actor to break away from a role they’ve played for years, especially when it comes to superheroes. Recently, we were treated to the perfect example of Wolverine. While Hugh Jackman had announced that he would no longer play the adamantium mutant after Logan, here he is returning in Deadpool 3. But as for Iron-Man, we can’t see him returning to the MCU, as his death was so important . So what, end of career? Surely not. Before playing Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, he had already started to break away from the superheroic world, notably with The Nice Guys or The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle. In addition, we must not forget that in addition to Iron-Man, the actor became known thanks to his interpretation of Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. Recently appearing in the television mini-series The Sympathizer, Robert Downey Jr does not seem to want to stop his career now.