Robert Downey Jr. Nearly Didn't Get the Role of Iron Man, Marvel's Kevin Feige Explains Why Tony Stark Won't Return!

On why he was nearly passed over for Iron Man:

Executives at Marvel didn’t want soon-to-be Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and director Jon Favreau to cast him.

“It purely came down to the Marvel board being nervous at putting all of their chips in their future films on somebody who famously had those legal troubles in the past. I wasn’t very good—and I’m still not great—at taking no for an answer. But I also don’t pound my chest to try to get my way. I try to figure out ways to make it as clear to other people why we should head in a direction. And that’s when the idea of a screen test came up,” Kevin said.