When Robert Downey jnr and Marvel got together to shoot Iron Man in 2007, the two could have been looking in the mirror. They were both down and out and in need of redemption.

Downey was well removed from his wunderkind years of Less than Zero and Chaplin after a series of tabloid scandals. Marvel was undertaking the risky launch of a studio without its biggest characters (Spider-Man and X-Men were licensed to other studios), forcing it to go with the lesser-known Tony Stark.

Washington Post