“This will be stupid”: Before Losing Iron Man to Robert Downey Jr., Star Wars Actor Refused Dwayne Johnson’s $7.3B Franchise Due to His Clairvoyance Powers

Robert Downey Jr. has captured our hearts with his iconic Iron Man portrayal in the MCU franchise. However, it’s not a secret anymore that this role was associated with many popular actors before eventually ending up with him. One of the personalities who auditioned for the Marvel role includes the Star Wars actor, Timothy Olyphant. 

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While he was unable to lead the superhero project in the franchise, he refused the lead role in Dwayne Johnson’s Fast & Furious franchise which eventually went to Vin Diesel.

Timothy Olyphant Refused Lead Role in Dwayne Johnson’s Fast & Furious Franchise

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The $7.3 billion Fast & Furious franchise producer, Neal H. Moritz reflected on the time when the first film was in the works. Given that Vin Diesel has set a remarkable standard as Dominic Toretto, it is extremely difficult for anyone to even think of any other actor for the role.

However, the former revealed that the studio had eyes on The Mandalorian actor, Timothy Olyphant to portray the lead role. Even the studio was ready to greenlight the film if he got onboard but it was all changed when he turned it down. 

The producer mentioned,

“The studio said, ‘If you get Timothy Olyphant to play the role of Dominic Toretto, the movie’s greenlit.’ We went to Tim and he passed, and we wondered if we were going to get to make it.”

Timothy Olyphant

As to why Olyphant passed on the offer, he later on mentioned,

“I just thought, well, this will just be stupid, and I thought no one is gonna wanna see this movie eight or nine different times. I mean, by the third or fourth sequel, people are gonna definitely get bored of it. Right?”

He was not much convinced about its future but it turned out to be otherwise. It went on to become one of the fan-favorite action franchises featuring an ensemble cast including DC actor, Dwayne Johnson. The Star Wars actor’s Hollywood journey has faced its fair share of failures including losing a Marvel role a little later.

Timothy Olyphant Auditioned for Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man

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Iron Man director, Jon Favreau had met with several actors for the portrayal of the titular superhero before he made up his mind to get Robert Downey Jr. on board. Among the list also include the Gone in 60 Seconds actor who unraveled about auditioning for the role.

He revealed about getting “scared to death” while auditioning for a big project but has fond memories of that experience.

“…but that was the time where I remember thinking, ‘Well, I can’t get any more grounded and so [auditioning for Iron Man] would be fun. I think prior to that I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t want those kinds of problems.’”

He further talked that his conversation with the director was part of the appeal for him who respects him tremendously. He jokingly mentioned that he holds no grudges against Favreau since he was the one who brought him on board for The Mandalorian. For the unversed, the director is the creator of the popular series starring Pedro Pascal.

Source: Yahoo