Robert Downey Jr was nearly cast in another Marvel role instead of Iron Man

While it's likely you can't imagine Robert Downey Jr being anyone other than Iron Man, it turns out he nearly landed a very different role.

Downey Jr's first Iron Man movie was released in 2008 and marked the beginning of what's now known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Following its success, Iron Man 2 was released just two years later and Downey Jr's character went on to star in a series of other Marvel movies as well.

To date, Marvel's highest grossing movie is 2019's Avengers: Endgame, which raked in almost $3 billion world wide.

While Iron Man was the first film in the MCU, it wasn't the first Marvel movie. Some earlier films based on Marvel comic book characters include Blade, X-Men, Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man and Hulk (to name a few).

Robert Downey Jr plays Tony Stark - AKA Iron Man - in the MCU. (Paramount Pictures)

Another movie was Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which hit cinemas in 2007.

It stars Jessica Alba (Sue Storm), Ioan Gruffudd (Reed Richards), Chris Evans (Johnny Storm) and Michael Chickis (Ben Grim) - and it turns out Downey Jr was almost cast in the movie too.

Downey Jr had been considered as the role of Doctor Doom in the film, but the part went on to be given to Julian McMahon.

The actor has featured in nine Marvel movies. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Director Jon Favreau sat down with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige last year to mark the 15th anniversary of Iron Man where they discussed the different path Downey Jr nearly went down.

"I remember Robert had come in for a general on [Iron Man]," recalled Favreau. "You had all met with him already for, like, Doctor Doom or something on another project."

He added: "I think that he'd come through from Fantastic Four, so everybody sort of new who he was and I remember sitting down with the guy and I was like, 'Jeez. He just got it. He's got that [sparkle] in his eye and he's ready.''

And the rest was history.

While Downey Jr auditioned for a role in a different Marvel movie, there's a good chance that had he been cast as Doctor Doom that he would have still landed the Iron Man gig as Evans went on to bag the role of Captain America.

The first Captain America wasn't released until 2011 however, giving some film fans a bit of time to forget that he was also Johnny Storm as well.

Since joining the MCU as Captain America, it won't have come as a surprise that Evans isn't going to be part of the new Fantastic Four cast.

Instead, Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn will portray Johnny Storm, with Vanessa Kirby taking on the part of Sue Storm.

Elsewhere Pedro Pascal has been cast as Reed Richards and Ebon Moss-Bachrach is set to star as Ben Grimm.