20 facts you might not know about 'Iron Man 2'

Favreau directed Iron Man and returned to direct the sequel (and to play Happy Hogan). The director initially envisioned making a trilogy of Iron Man films, but his notions fluctuated. For example, he initially imagined Obidiah Stane becoming Iron Monger in the sequels before that happened in Iron Man. He also considered the Mandarin as a villain but then compared that to doing Return of the Jedi in A New Hope.

When pondering baddies for the movie — in the end, they went with Justin Hammer and Whiplash — they also considered Ghost. While Ghost didn’t make an appearance, eventually she showed up many years later in Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Favreau and Downey got a little advice on the script from Shane Black, a frequent script doctor who rose to fame as one of the first celebrity screenwriters thanks to movies like Lethal Weapon. He had directed Downey in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The advice must have been sound because, soon enough, Black would find himself in the MCU directing Iron Man 3.

The one credited screenwriter on Iron Man 2 ? That would be Justin Theroux. You may know his name because he’s primarily an actor starring in shows like The Leftovers. Oh, also, he was married to Jennifer Aniston for a bit. This is his only sole screenwriting credit, but he does have co-credit on Tropic Thunder, which co-starred Downey.

When you have Marvel cache, even your storyboard artists come with impressive resumes. Iron Man 2 was storyboarded by Genndy Tartakovsky. If you aren’t familiar, he is the creator of shows like Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack and directed the first three Hotel Transylvania movies. So yeah, not your typical storyboard artist.

Emily Blunt in the MCU? It could have happened. She was in talks to play Black Widow early on. However, she couldn’t take the role because she was contracted to co-star in Jack Black’s Gulliver’s Travels. While overseas markets saved that movie, it was a critical flop and only made $48 million domestically from a budget of $112 million. That movie has been forgotten, and Blunt didn’t end up as Black Widow in the MCU.

Johansson played Black Widow, a.k.a. Natasha Romanoff, but that wasn’t a guarantee. Not so much because Marvel didn’t want the actress. No, Johansson did some research on other Marvel characters she could possibly play, such as Blonde Phantom and Wasp. In the end, though, they went with Black Widow for her.

Here is what we know for sure: After playing Rhodes in Iron Man, Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle for Iron Man 2. Why did that happen? That’s the question. Howard complained that “the contracts that we write and sign aren't worth the paper that they're printed on.” Entertainment Weekly reported that Favreau didn’t like working with Howard. There were also reports that Marvel wanted Howard to lower his salary, as he had been the highest-paid person on Iron Man. Some reports said Rhodes’ role was downsized, which Theroux denied. The truth is in there somewhere, but all we know is Cheadle became Rhodes from there on out.

It did not take any convincing to get Rockwell to play Justin Hammer. In fact, he signed on before reading the full script. The actor was friends with screenwriter Theroux, for starters. On top of that, he had acted in Favreau’s film Made, so he was happy to work with the director again.

Jackson’s cameo as Nick Fury in Iron Man was a landmark for the MCU before the MCU was even a thing. Contract negotiations almost kept him from continuing on, though. Then, to get Jackson into Iron Man 2, the actor signed an unprecedented nine-film deal with Marvel.

This was during the brief period when Rourke was again a viable entity in Hollywood. He was cast to play Whiplash and proceeded to bring a lot of his own ideas to the table. His tattoos and gold teeth? His idea. The random cockatoo for a pet? You’d better believe that was a Rourke original. On top of that, Rourke decided he wanted half his character’s dialogue to be in Russian.

Olivia Munn was cast in Iron Man 2, but not for the role she ended up playing. Whatever that role was, the character was never specified in reports and was then cut from the film. However, Favreau then ported her over to playing Chess Roberts, a reporter covering the Stark Expo, to keep her in the movie.

Iron Man 2  is probably the most cameo-heavy of any Marvel movie. There’s Stan Lee, of course, but there’s also Christiane Amanpour and, um, Bill O’Reilly, Larry Ellison, and Elon Musk. Adam Goldstein, known professionally as DJ AM, also appears as himself, but sadly after filming his cameo, Goldstein died of a drug overdose. The film is dedicated to him.

It may have been a little surprising to see comedy legend Garry Shandling show up in the MCU, but there he is in Iron Man 2 as Senator Stern. Stern would end up recurring in the franchise until Shandling’s untimely death, but the character’s name is an homage to another comedy legend. Favreau has said the character is named in honor of Howard Stern.

Initially, the Grand Prix of Monaco scenes were going to be filmed in Monaco before the running of the 2009 race. Unfortunately, then-F1 bigwig Bernie Ecclestone nixed that idea and rescinded the offer. Instead, they built sets for the race in the parking lot of Downey Studios in Downey, California.

What did Rourke find most challenging about playing Whiplash? Saying lines in Russian? Acting with gold teeth in his mouth? Pretending to whip electricity at people? Nope, it was pretending to know anything about technology. The actor described himself as computer illiterate and said that pretending to be tech-savvy was the tricky thing about the role.

There are several news clippings of Stark and Ivan Vanko, a.k.a. Whiplash, shown in the film. Fortunately for the production, those characters happened to be played by two actors who have been famous since they were quite young. Thus, real photos of Downey and Rourke were used for the photos of Stark and Vanko. A photo of Rourke being arrested on drug charges made its way into the film.

Rockwell is a great actor. He’s also one of our foremost cinematic dancers. Rockwell is known for dancing in his films, and his moves are often the highlight of his performances. Hammer dances in the film, and Rockwell improvised that entirely. It was a dance he had been doing to get into character.

While these days Iron Man 2 is remembered as a lesser effort in the MCU, it does have a 72 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Also, it made plenty of cash. With a budget in the $170 million to $200 million range, Iron Man 2 made $623.9 million worldwide. It was the third-highest-grossing movie of 2010 domestically and the seventh-highest-grossing movie worldwide.

Iron Man 2 received a handful of nominations from shows like the People’s Choice and Teen Choice Awards, but the Academy gave it a nomination as well. Granted, it was for Best Visual Effects, and Iron Man 2 did not win that particular award.