Hollywood Flashback: 15 Years Ago, Marvel Won Comic-Con With ‘Iron Man’

Returning to Comic-Con this year for the first time since 2019, Marvel Studios is known for its Hall H displays that descend into Beatlemania-like hysteria. But 15 years ago, Marvel was an underdog with a lot to prove.

The company had recently started making its own movies based on so-called second-tier heroes that it still had the rights to, as major Hollywood studios were talking about Spider-Man and the X-Men. In 2006, at its first Comic-Con panel as a producer, Marvel presented a list of films with directors such as Jon Favreau, Edgar Wright and Louis Leterrier. The following year, his first film, Iron Manwas in post-production, so Marvel decided to screen it at Comic-Con, though the film won’t be released until May 2008.

“The only one mentioned Iron Man There were articles in the mainstream press that predicted the end of Marvel Studios when it came out with its B-list heroes,” director Favreau recalled in a special issue of Comic-Con. the hollywood reporter which he starred in in 2011. “I also knew I had to make a splash because expectations for the film at the time were zero,” he added.

Prior to the panel, Marvel delivered a huge, mysterious box labeled “Stark Industries” on the convention floor. It remained closed for several days until a full-size replica of the hero’s armor was unveiled at a ceremony with Robert Downey Jr. and Iron Man creator Stan Winston. On July 27, Downey and Gwyneth Paltrow (who played Tony Stark’s assistant Pepper Potts) and Terrence Howard (Stark’s friend James Rhodes, remade with Don Cheadle) Iron man 2) took the stage with Favreau.

The trailer was so successful that the public demanded that it be played again. Downey “connected like Tony” and “had people out of their seats,” recalls Mark Fergus. Iron Man Screenwriter who was in the audience at the presentation. “We feel like we’ve split the atom,” says Fergus of the energy that permeated the day. “We were caught off guard. We left there surprised and smiling.”

The buzz was worth it like Iron Man It opened the following May to $98.6 million and grossed $585.4 million worldwide, over the course of 27 (and counting) subsequent Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

This story first appeared in the July 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.