Taglines

• Heroes aren't born, they're built

Trivias

• Rachel McAdams was Jon Favreau's first choice to play Pepper Potts, but she turned the role down.
• Robert Downey Jr. set up his own office next to Jon Favreau's office, to discuss his role with Favreau. He also became highly involved in pre-production.
• Jon Favreau was originally going to direct Captain America (2009) in the manner of a superhero comedy adventure, but he instead chose to direct this film and give it a more serious tone. Ironically, Nick Cassavetes, who was chosen to direct that film, had been filled in to direct this film in December 2004.
• Jon Favreau describes the film as "a kind of independent film-espionage thriller crossbreed; a Robert Altman-directed Superman (1978), with shades of Tom Clancy novels, James Bond films, RoboCop (1987), and Batman Begins (2005)."
• In the comics, Tony Stark participated (and became Iron Man) in the Vietnam War; later this was retconned to the Gulf War. In this film, the character's origin was retconned to Afghanistan, as Jon Favreau did not wish to make the film a period piece but instead give it a realistic contemporary look.
• During shooting, Jon Favreau preferred improvisation in dialogue scenes, calling back to his Robert Altman influence.
• Tony Stark drives an Audi R8 in the film, as part of a promotion deal Marvel Studio's made with the Audi Automobile Company. Two other vehicles, the Audi A6 sedan and the Audi Q7 SUV, also make an appearance in the film.
• An Aaton 35mm camera was accidentally run over by a tank during a shoot.
• In October 1999, Quentin Tarantino was approached to write and direct the film. Later, Joss Whedon, a big fan of the comic book, was in negotiations to direct the film in June 2001. In December 2004, Nick Cassavetes was hired as a director, with the film to release in 2006, but everything fell through. Finally, Jon Favreau was hired as director.
• Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise were interested in playing Iron Man. Cruise in particular was going to act in and produce the film.