Tech billionaire Elon Musk is considered by many to be the real Tony Stark. The parallels aren’t coincidental either, as Musk was actually a source of inspiration for Iron Man from the first film. But now Robert Downey Jr. was critical of his submission.
Who was the inspiration for Tony Stark? Mark Fergus was a screenwriter for the first Iron Man film, released in 2008. There were several sources of inspiration for the character of Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr. Ferguson revealed this to New York Magazine in 2022.
According to Fergus, the authors asked themselves who the modern Howard Hughes would be. Hughes was an entrepreneur, but also a film producer and director. They were looking for an entrepreneur who was also interesting in gossip. They came across Elon Musk.
Tony Stark in the first film then became a mixture of Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Steve Jobs. But Musk is particularly special because he has combined the brilliance of Jobs with the sensationalism of Trump.
Back then, Elon Musk wasn’t criticized as much as he is today. He received a lot of criticism, especially for his actions regarding X (previously Twitter) and his support for Donald Trump. They are now joined by Robert Downey Jr., who criticizes the billionaire in a podcast.
English trailer for Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr.
More videos
Autoplay
Iron Man thinks Musk should control his behavior
What does Robert Downey Jr. say about Elon Musk? Downey Jr. was a guest on the podcast On with Kara Swisher (via Spotify). He mainly talked about his Broadway debut, but Elon Musk also came up. Especially because he is so similar to Tony Stark. Robert Downey Jr. said the following about Musk:
Yes. I only met him a few times. I think that as an almost 60-year-old recovering white American male, I wish he had a little more control over his behavior. But that’s not my fault. […] But as I said, you have to look at everything he’s done to show why he’s valuable. And as I said, these days it’s difficult to separate the person from their behavior.
Elon Musk himself often seems like a real-life Tony Stark. Be it his efforts to advance robotics and AI, the colonization of Mars or simply statements that he wants to build his own Iron Man armor in order to increase security. (via Independent.co.uk)
Not only was Elon Musk a source of inspiration for Iron Man, he even starred in 2010’s Iron Man 2. There, Tony, Pepper and Natasha are in a restaurant and Elon Musk appears as a cameo, who even greets Pepper and Tony and exchanges a short dialogue.
In the current MCU, Iron Man is currently over. But fans of Robert Downey Jr. don’t have to say goodbye to him. He comes back as the nasty villain Dr. Doom. Why Dr. We have explained to you here that Doom could be even more dangerous than Thanos: 5 reasons why Dr. Doom in Marvel is scarier than Thanos