Robert Downey Jr. Credits Tobey Maguire for His Iron Man Casting

Robert Downey Jr. helped pave the way for the entire MCU with his seminal performance as Tony Stark in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man, but it was thanks to another Marvel star that Downey Jr. got the role in the first place. It’s hard to separate Downey Jr. from his leading role in Iron Man, a character whom the actor has reprised nine times. His performance is so iconic that a lot of modern Iron Man comics base their versions of Tony Stark on Robert Downey Jr. Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming saw Iron Man and Peter Parker (Tom Holland) become close friends on-screen, but it’s thanks to another Spider-Man actor that Downey Jr. ever became Iron Man at all.