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(#7) Nicolas Cage
- 55
It's frankly ludicrous the MCU never made an Iron Man movie starring Nicolas Cage. So what if he got to be Ghost Rider? Cage is essentially Tony Stark in real life, aside from the fact that he's probably not exceptionally gifted at math and science. He's charismatic, and has the money to buy whatever he wants, all of which gives him a Stark-like quality.
Cage's unhinged performances from the '90s and 2000s earned him a reputation as an actor who goes all-in when the camera starts rolling. You know he'd have given an inspired monologue as he watched Stark Tower burn, though admittedly, the movie would probably have gone straight to VHS.
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(#1) Tom Hanks
- 62
Tom Hanks isn't the first guy you think about when the phrase "billionaire in a robot suit who fights a bio-engineered sentient computer to save the Cosmic Cube" comes to mind. But that's okay, because everyone loves Hanks. He's a relatable goof who grounds his work in a wholesome reality that makes the audience believe everything is going to be fine. If he'd been given the chance, he would have turned cocky science playboy Tony Stark into an endearing simpleton, and that's what the world needed in 1997.
A decade after the untimely death of Pepper Potts, a bumbling Tony Stark learns to love again when his son teaches him it's okay to give his heart away. When Stark realizes his newfound love works at Stane International, he has to choose between romance and getting into fist fights with other robot suit-clad billionaires.
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(#11) John Travolta
- 65
How badly do you want to see Tony Stark dance to a Chuck Berry song? Throughout the '90s, John Travolta careened between memorable performances (Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty) and misfires (Look Who's Talking Now, Boris and Natasha), depending on the skill of the director.
The closest Travolta ever came to playing a wisecracking badass like Tony Stark were his two John Woo-helmed roles: Vic Deakins in Broken Arrow and the dual role of Sean Archer and Castor Troy in Face/Off. These performances prove he could have been a major player in the non-existent '90s Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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(#9) Daniel Day-Lewis
- 61
Daniel Day-Lewis isn't in a lot of movies. He takes his roles incredibly seriously, and he spends years preparing to inhabit his characters. Why Day-Lewis was never asked to play Tony Stark is a mystery, as his Iron Man would have crafted a dour story of sadness and existential pain.
To really get into the mind of billionaire tech genius Tony Stark, Day-Lewis would have started his own tech company. In the beginning, DDL Industries would manufacture household electronics, but then quickly move into the weapons business. Day-Lewis would, of course, be kidnapped by a terrorist group, at which point he'd escape by building a rudimentary power armor out of random scraps and old Oscars. Back home, he'd construct a sleeker, more agile version, murder his surrogate father figure in a climactic fight, and then head out for the first day of filming.
Day-Lewis's portrayal of Tony Stark could have garnered the first Academy Award for a comic book movie. Directed by Jim Sheridan (My Last Foot, In The Name of the Father) it would have been a perpetually bleak tome chronicling Stark's fall from grace.
Fifteen years after Pepper Potts broke things off to live out the rest of her life in the Rocky Mountains, Stark spends his days slumped in his parlor, playing backgammon with JARVIS and cursing at the moon. In a drunken attempt to regain his former glory, the billionaire suits up and tries to save some children who are stuck in a burning orphanage. After a suit malfunction, Stark realizes he's become immobilized, which can be taken as a metaphor for his life. Rather than address the problem with his suit, Stark decides to lay down and die in the burning orphanage.
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(#5) Mel Gibson
- 63
Mel Gibson's output of crowd-pleasing action films in the late '80s and early '90s is unparalleled. From Lethal Weapon, to Bird on a Wire, to Air America, much of Gibson's work strikes a balance between epic conflicts and goofy good times, so it's safe to assume he'd have nailed the role of Tony Stark. If Lethal Weapon writer (and Iron Man 3 director) Shane Black had been on board, the movie could have ushered in the MCU 20 years earlier.
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(#15) Ted Danson
- 71
Admittedly, Ted Danson is more of a TV guy, but after 11 years on Cheers, he might have been looking for a change, and fighting villains in a robot suit is about as far from tending bar as one can go. Danson might seem like a guy who's more suited to playing Reed Richards, but if you've seen his work on Bored To Death or The Good Place, you know he's got the comedy chops to handle what would have been a great made-for-TV Iron Man movie. Since '90s television budgets weren't quite up to the standards of the modern-day MCU, Tony Stark would have spent most of the film building an immobile Iron Man suit.
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In most cases, successful superhero movie roles are associated with individual actors. When you hear Iron Man, you think about Robert Downey Jr., when you hear Wolverine, you think about Hugh Jackman, which is normal. Since the 21st century, superhero movies have dominated the current development of Hollywood movies, and many outstanding actors have been famous for their super influential roles.
However, when people look back at the shining stars of Old Hollywood in the 90s, people still witness the rise of many outstanding actors, and they can also be a good cast choice for the role of Iron Man. The random tool lists 15 famous actors who would play Iron man if it was made in the 90s.
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