Was Robert Downey Jr Born to Play Tony Stark?

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The_Hajduk

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Poll Was Robert Downey Jr Born to Play Tony Stark? (51 votes)

Yes 69%
No 29%
Results 2%
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Supermanthor

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Stan Lee said so

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Ghostodoofus2

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#2  Edited By Ghostodoofus2

He was born to play HIS take of Tony Stark. The Tony from the comics is nothing like RDJ's portrayal, at least not until his portrayal began influencing how the comic counterpart is written.

If you read the pre-RDJ Iron Man comics, you'd notice that comic Tony behaves far more professionally than MCU Tony, he doesn't crack jokes nearly as much and isn't as sarcastic.

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Magian

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Yeah, I feel that after a point RDJ was just playing himself. Still good work though.

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morpheus_

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#4 morpheus_  Moderator

If he was born to play someone, that's Chaplin.

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Supermanthor

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#5  Edited By Supermanthor

@ghostodoofus2: He basically changed the concept of the character

he is one of the few actors who defined a character rather than vice versa

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Magian

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@supermanthor: Well tbf, Iron Man wasn't the only character whose comic book counterpart was made to be more like his MCU one.

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@ghostodoofus2: yep agree the civil war film is the closes he was to classic comic Tony for me

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IndomitableRegal

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Pretty sure a future MCU role is not why he was conceived. Don't be silly lol.

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Supermanthor

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@magian said:

@supermanthor: Well tbf, Iron Man wasn't the only character whose comic book counterpart was made to be more like his MCU one.

Agree on that but for me he is the most enjoyable at least for me

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Magian

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#10  Edited By Magian

@supermanthor: He is or was anyway, among the better and more charismatic (which can be even more important than the actual acting ability) actors in the MCU. No one can deny that.

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Supermanthor

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TheAmazingSpidey

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He was born to play HIS take of Tony Stark. The Tony from the comics is nothing like RDJ's portrayal, at least not until his portrayal began influencing how the comic counterpart is written.

If you read the pre-RDJ Iron Man comics, you'd notice that MCU Tony behaves far more professionally than MCU Tony, he doesn't crack jokes nearly as much and isn't as sarcastic.

THIS.

RDJ as Tony Stark is one of the most perfect castings in cinematic history, but the answer to "was he born to play Tony Stark?" Depends on what you mean. Because although his cinematic Tony is fantastic, it's quite different from the source material.

A perfect example of "born to play the character" would be JK Simmons as JJJ. His performance really does feel like they someone ripped the pages from a comic and brought them to life.

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Ghostodoofus2

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#14  Edited By Ghostodoofus2

@theamazingspidey: Thank you! I wholeheartedly agree, J.K. Simmons's portrayal of J. Jonah Jameson is one of few that is 100% comic book accurate.

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Yes, he absolutely was. Even if he wasn’t 100% comic book accurate, he took the character to a new level of popularity. Iron Man was B list before, now he’s A list +

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#16  Edited By KrleAvenger

So far, the only actor who was "born to play a comic book character" is JK Simmons as JJJ. Robert Downey Jr. plays his own version of Tony Stark, who is mostly just RDJ himself with few characteristics of 616 Tony Stark and Ultimate Tony Stark. Whoever tells you that MCU Tony Stark is just like his comic counterpart either never read a comic, or he read Post-2010 one where Marvel started copy pasting MCU aspects due to lack of creativity.

Which is perfectly fine. You don't have to be comic accurate to be good. Downey' Iron Man is a great character. I'm just saying how he is not comic accurate.

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Richubs

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Yes he has defined the role in an insane manner that'd be difficult to top.

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Michaelbn

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So far, the only actor who was "born to play a comic book character" is JK Simmons as JJJ. Robert Downey Jr. plays his own version of Tony Stark, who is mostly just RDJ himself with few characteristics of 616 Tony Stark and Ultimate Tony Stark. Whoever tells you that MCU Tony Stark is just like his comic counterpart either never read a comic, or he read Post-2010 one where Marvel started copy pasting MCU aspects due to lack of creativity.

Which is perfectly fine. You don't have to be comic accurate to be good. Downey' Iron Man is a great character. I'm just saying how he is not comic accurate.

This.

He was born to play Chaplin, Harry Lockhart, and Kirk Lazarus

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BalancedTruth

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One of the worst castings in history

So overrated

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infantfinite128

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@theamazingspidey: Thank you! I wholeheartedly agree, J.K. Simmons's portrayal of J. Jonah Jameson is one of few that is 100% comic book accurate.

It was so well casted, acted, and well-written.

Do you think Michael Fassbender could have been a perfect Magneto if the writing was different?

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PhantomRant

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Yes, he was.

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#22 g2_  Online

One of the worst castings in history

So overrated

How?

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BalancedTruth

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@g2_: he was so inconsistent

From his first appearance to his last he just was all over the place

It wasn’t even character development, and now it’s literally all Robert does... same exact guy in every film. It’s not even acting, it’s just him.

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Ghostodoofus2

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@mr_shazam0920: You could say the same about Thor, Hemsworth made him A-list.

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@infantfinite128: If the writing was better, definitely. Fassbender is a great actor.

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Supermanthor

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@krleavenger:

I would say Ryan Reynolds was born to play Deadpool.

And also Sam L Jackson was born to play Nick Fury lol.

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@ghostodoofus2:

As much as I love Hemsworth Thor, the real star was RDJ as Tony.

The general audience didn’t even really take to Thor up until Ragnarok. Just look at the movies. Iron Man 3 did a crazy 1.3 billion, Ragnarok which was a much better film did 850 million or so.

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life_without_progress

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And also Sam L Jackson was born to play Nick Fury lol.

Nah, the version MCU Nick Fury was based on the Ultimate Universe version of Nick Fury whose design was based on Jackson.

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KrleAvenger

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@mr_shazam0920: Samuel Jackson plays Ultimate version of Nick Fury, but that's because the writers created the Ultimate version of Nick Fury based off of Samuel Jackson himself. The actor just asked for potential role in the future in return. So technically it is the opposite. Ultimate Fury was created to be Samuel Jackson.

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#32 g2_  Online
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#34 anthp2000  Moderator

Idk how he is in the comics tbh, but I adore his portrayal and couldn't imagine someone else in his place at all.

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He's the closes one since Christopher Reeve/Superman.

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Michaelbn

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@g2_: he was so inconsistent

From his first appearance to his last he just was all over the place

It wasn’t even character development, and now it’s literally all Robert does... same exact guy in every film. It’s not even acting, it’s just him.

You clearly didn't see Tropic Thunder and Chaplin.

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He was born to play Captain Jack Sparrow and Edward Scissor Hands.

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#38  Edited By APEX_pretador

I don't care if he's comic accurate or not. I never enjoyed comic stark. But RDJs Tony is only e of my favourites. He is supposed to be his own thing, not a photocopy of his 616 version nor ultimate version.

Remember this is not 616 Iron Man he's playing.

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Battle123axe

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Pretty sure a future MCU role is not why he was conceived. Don't be silly lol.

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Battle123axe

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He was born to play HIS take of Tony Stark. The Tony from the comics is nothing like RDJ's portrayal, at least not until his portrayal began influencing how the comic counterpart is written.

If you read the pre-RDJ Iron Man comics, you'd notice that comic Tony behaves far more professionally than MCU Tony, he doesn't crack jokes nearly as much and isn't as sarcastic.

also this

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EternalDarkFury

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Yes.

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Shinne

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Yes, he absolutely was. Even if he wasn’t 100% comic book accurate, he took the character to a new level of popularity. Iron Man was B list before, now he’s A list +

This is true.

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Nah his parents got freaky one night and decided to do it without a rubber attached to his dad's ding dong and boom, Robert Downey Jr. was born. I doubt they thought they were making a future actor that was going to play Iron-Man.

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#45  Edited By Bayman007

Nooo, he was awesome as Tony though

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deactivated-5daccae6547be

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Probably

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pipxeroth

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@ghostodoofus2 said:

He was born to play HIS take of Tony Stark. The Tony from the comics is nothing like RDJ's portrayal, at least not until his portrayal began influencing how the comic counterpart is written.

If you read the pre-RDJ Iron Man comics, you'd notice that MCU Tony behaves far more professionally than MCU Tony, he doesn't crack jokes nearly as much and isn't as sarcastic.

THIS.

RDJ as Tony Stark is one of the most perfect castings in cinematic history, but the answer to "was he born to play Tony Stark?" Depends on what you mean. Because although his cinematic Tony is fantastic, it's quite different from the source material.

A perfect example of "born to play the character" would be JK Simmons as JJJ. His performance really does feel like they someone ripped the pages from a comic and brought them to life.

1000% this

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I'm less of the opinion that he's an ideal Tony Stark and more of the opinion that his charisma and the way he sells it makes us love and believe that he's Tony Stark. There are obviously some changes, but RDJ pulls off everything so well, you can't help but love his performance.