Iron Man 2 is arguably one of the most frenetic Marvel movies out there, and it turns out there are some behind-the-scenes “gyrations” with the script that may explain why.
A recent Vulture article delves into the making of the 2010 movie, including how the movie went into production without a script, and how Robert Downey Jr.’s star power and penchant for ad-libbing forced scriptwriter Justin Theroux (yes, the same Justin Theroux who starred in The Leftovers) to undergo rewrites almost daily while shooting, something that stressed him out so much he threw out his back and became bed-ridden (though Theroux’s rep denies stress from the movie was the cause of his back problems).
“There was the sense he was overwhelmed with trying to keep this point in the center between what Marvel wanted to do, what they could do, what they had already done, and what everyone would allow,” one Marvel insider told Vulture. “That target is pretty small. It changes by the hour. They’re making wholesale changes to the story when the cameras are rolling. At night, [Theroux] is doing writing gyrations trying to make it all make sense.”
The article has more behind-the-scenes tidbits about the making of the movie, including how the creative team moved away from adapting the Demon in a Bottle comic run, where Iron Man is an alcoholic, because they “didn’t want to be the Leaving Las Vegas version of Iron Man 2.” It also has some background about Mickey Rourke’s involvement, such as how he insisted his character, Ivan Vanko, have his hair in a samurai bun, speak with a Russian accent, and carry a bird on his shoulder.
Sadly, no behind-the-scenes tidbits about the MCU’s most underrated villain, Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer.
Iron Man 2 is currently streaming on Disney+.
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This certainly goes a long way towards explaining the unevenness of the movie. While I really liked it as a whole, and actually feel the overall plot is better than Iron Man 3, there were also some really cringe-worthy bits, including the party scene pictured above. I also thought Ivan Vanko was underrated as a villain; he had some weird tics, but he also had more nuance than the bad guys from numbers 1 and 3.