27 Behind-The-Scenes Stories Of How Our Favorite MCU Actors Bagged Their Iconic Roles

Marvel didn't actually like the idea of RDJ playing Iron Man but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Sophia

• Published in Film & TV
• July 22, 2022

If there's an easy way to stardom in Hollywood, it's being cast in a movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Whether you are just a rising actor in the industry or you are someone who has already been a known actor over the years, being in a Marvel movie is sure one way to give birth once again to your career.

Just take Chris Evans, for example—let's face it, not that many people really paid attention to his acting skills before he became Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger, and not even when he played as Human Torch in Fantastic Four in 2005. Robert Downey Jr. may have also been in the industry since the '80s and '90s, but his name boomed when he became the ever-loved Tony Stark, with people all over the world highlighting how eerily similar he is to the character he plays in real life.

But as much as RDJ is like the real-life Tony Stark in this world, it definitely comes as a surprise that Marvel wasn't actually keen on giving him the role at first because they didn't seem like an action star. They took the risk of casting him—and look at where RDJ has brought the whole franchise now!

That being said, landing a role in Marvel whether minor or major is never an easy thing to achieve. Scroll on to see how other MCU actors bagged their roles in their respective films!

1. Elizabeth Olsen starred in many independent films, but there came a time when she told her agent and manager that she wanted to have a role in bigger franchises, just like the ones she was obsessed with while growing up.

They suggested that she should meet with people in charge of the companies producing big films, so she did. Soon enough, Joss Whedon, the director for Age of Ultron, had Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (who is also her costar in Godzilla) as Wanda and Pietro Maximoff.

"He and I both took separate meetings with Joss while we were doing reshoots for Godzilla," she said to the Collider Ladies Night. "[We] were like, 'Are we both gonna do this? Like, this is so funny. Should we move on from being husband and wife to being brother and sister?'"

2. Iman Vellani has read all the Ms. Marvel comics when she was in high school, and even dressed up as her once for Halloween. However, she did not send in her audition tape when a casting call came up, courtesy of her aunt who sent the details through Whatsapp.

She thought it was a fake casting call, but she was eventually convinced by her mom to submit a headshot and her resume.

She told the Globe and Mail, "I was making excuses for myself out of fear...Then 3 a.m. hits the night it’s due. My 10-year-old self is going to hate me if I don’t even try. So I quickly recorded it and then two days later, I get a call. They’re like, ‘Do you have a lawyer? We want to fly you to L.A."

"That was in February of 2020. And the pandemic hit. So my screen test happened in June over Zoom, and it was super weird. But then I got cast on the last day of high school, and here we are," she said.

3. Zendaya had no idea what she was auditioning for when she tried for the role of MJ Watson. She found out it was for Spider-Man through her agents.

But at that time, she didn't really know which specific character was it for.

She told GQ, "I didn't really know what character or what kind character they would be."

"Right before the screen test, they were kinda saying, 'Okay, these are the characters that we're reading for, MJ being one of them.' And I was like, 'Oh, that would be so cool.'"

4. Tom Holland went through seven months worth of audition process before landing the role of Peter Parker. He then had to travel to Atlanta for a screen test with Robert Downey Jr.

He said to Variety, "It’s the best audition I’ve ever done, him and I were riffing off each other. My agents told me that Marvel likes you to learn the words exactly — you can’t improvise. And then, on the first take, Downey just completely changed the scene. We started riffing with each other, and I mean, to sound like a bit of a dick, I rang my mum afterward and was like, 'I think I’ve got it.'"

Six weeks later, the role was cut down to Holland and another actor, who both flew back to Atlanta for another screen test with Chris Evans. He did not get any calls after that, so he assumed he botched the role.

After some time, he searched about Marvel online and that's when he discovered he booked the part.

He said, "I’ve still got the article saved on my computer. It said, 'We would like to introduce our new Spider-Man, Tom Holland.' I broke my computer, because I flipped it up in the air. It fell off my bed...And then the studio called me and gave me the news."

5. Jacob Batalon auditioned for an "Untitled Marvel Project" when he was a student at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.

He told Comicbook.com, "The specs were so general. It was like 'Any body type, any age as long as you look like you're 17.'"

He was given the Spider-Man script after he got a callback for a second self-tape. He immediately skipped straight to part of having a screen test with Tom Holland.

Eventually, after months of waiting, his manager informed him that Marvel wanted him. After graduating, he learned that he was going to be Ned Leeds.

"I hung up the phone. I started crying, I started screaming, I started yelling and running down the sidewalk. All these people are staring at me...I missed my train but that was the best," he said.

6. Harry Styles was the only choice for Starfox, the personal pawn of Chloé Zhao, director of Eternals.

She told ScreenRant, "I thought about Harry since Dunkirk. I thought was very interesting what he did there, and I like casting people who are pretty much a version of that character in real life. And these two, as soon as I met Harry, I thought that he is Eros."

"If Kevin says yes, and if Harry says yes, then this is going to happen. Otherwise, we wouldn't be having that post-credits scene," she said.

7. Gemma Chan wasn't really considered as Sersi because she'd already a role as Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel. But the casting team discovered it was one of the hardest roles to fill.

Nate Moore, the Eternals producer, told ScreenRant, "I do remember the point where we said, 'Maybe should we read Gemma, is that weird? Is our audience going to go with us or are they going to say no?' But we read her, and she was perfect for us. We said, 'Well, let's see.'"

"I think if Minn-Erva [was] not blue, I don't know if we would have pulled that trigger," he said.

8. When Brian Tyree Henry was offered the role of Phastos in Eternals, he responded, "Cool. How much weight do I have to lose?"

Zhao told him, "What are you talking about? We want you exactly as you are."

He told Variety, "To be a Black man, to have someone look at you and say [that] is unlike anything that I’ve ever felt. It just triggered me to be an 11-year-old kid who is watching these superhero movies, and not ever seeing anyone like me reflected...I truly believe that that moment started when I sat down with Chloé. It’s unlike any feeling I’ve ever experienced."

9. Lauren Ridloff brought one of her sons along with her while at an audition. The casting director then got interested in booking her for a different project,

Months later, her manager was told, "We want to consider Lauren for a Marvel film, and I can’t tell you what it is."

She told the New York Times, "I got the call that the director of the movie wanted to meet with me, so I dropped everything and came to LA. Chloé Zhao and Nate Moore broke everything down and asked if I was interested [in playing Makkari], and my immediate answer was yes."

10. Xóchitl Gómez was just 13 when she submitted her audition tape for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. America Chavez was then made to be 18 years old, so she thought she wouldn't have the role.

Fortunately, months later, she heard from Marvel again because screenwriter Michael Waldron had decided to write America at a younger age.

Gómez spent hours of stunt training up until her screen test with Benedict Cumberbatch in London. A few days later, she officially bagged the role.

11. Marvel and Scott Derrickson, Doctor Strange director, locked their target on Benedict Cumberbatch from the very start but he turned down the offer at first.

Cumberbatch wasn't able to accommodate the movie because of the demands of Sherlock and Hamlet, so the studio moved on.

Marvel initially put the role to Joaquin Phoenix, but he had to back out because of "too many requirements that went against [his] instincts for the character."

They contacted Cumberbatch again, and he only accepted when they compromised to delay the production for him to still honor his commitments to Sherlock and Hamlet.

12. Benedict Wong leanred about Wong from his The Martian costar Chiwetel Ejiofor, who told him of his role in Doctor Strange.

Wong told Variety, "I looked it up on the internet and saw a photo of Strange with Wong peeping out on the side, and my jaw dropped. I joked about having a petition called 'Wong for Wong.' One day, I got this mysterious email asking me to audition."

He said, "I got the part when I was on the set of Marco Polo. I was dressed as Kublai Khan and sitting on a throne, not being able to tell anyone. I texted Chiwetel and said, 'I think I’m going to have to borrow your lawyer.' He texts back, 'Wong for Wong?' And I replied, 'Wong is Wong.'"

13. Samuel L. Jackson already saw himself as Nick Fury in The Ultimates. Coincidentally, Mark Millar based the reimagined version of fury off of his favorite actor, without knowing that Jackson is actually a huge fan of the comics.

Jackson's agents contacted Marvel, who apologized for basing the character on his likeness without permission. So they promised to let the actor play Fury in any of their future adaptations.

Eventually, Iron Man director Jon Favreau wanted to have Jackson appear as Nick Fury in one of the post credits as an easter egg for comic fans. However, it was actually a great idea because the MCU bloomed from Fury's Avengers Initiative.

14. Marvel turned down Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, and the studio told Favreau, "Under no circumstances are we prepared to hire him for any price."

After hearing the bad news, Downey only replied, "With your permission, I’m going to hold out hope." His persistence inspired the director to help him fight for the role until he got a screen test—and of course, he bagged the prize.

Feige said to CinemaBlend, "Everybody knew he was an amazing actor. But he hadn't been an action star. He wasn't a marquee star, necessarily. And we quickly realized the risk, I've said this before, was not casting him. And Jon Favreau really had that vision for that movie and for Robert in that role."

"It was both the biggest risk and the most important thing in the founding of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Without Robert, we wouldn't be sitting here today," he said.

15. Before being Bruce Banner in The Avengers, Mark Ruffalo was already considered as the lead for The Incredible Hulk.

The role actually went briefly to Ruffalo, but Norton and Marvel had a deal and the role was transferred back to him.

However, after the release of The Incredible Hulk, Norton's relationship with Marvel was put in a complicated sitch, so they replaced him in The Avengers with Ruffalo. He was initially scared to accept the role because of his personal reservations—until RDJ called.

"He just simply said, 'Ruffalo, let's go! We got this' in true Iron Man fashion," Ruffalo told The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. "And then after that, I was like, 'I guess I have to do it.'"

16. Joel Silver, the Captain America: The First Avenger producer, wanted Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, but Fiege and co-producer Stephen Broussard actually preferred Sebastian Stan.

Eventually, the studio decided to have Chris Evans, but he turned them down a couple of times. Lisa Evans, his mom, told Esquire, "His biggest fear was losing his anonymity...I said to him, 'Look, you want to do acting work for the rest of your life? If you do this part, you will have the opportunity. You’ll never have to worry about paying the rent. If you take the part, you just have to decide, It’s not going to affect my life negatively — it will enable it.'"

He was also called by Downey and Silver, which led him to accept the role.

In The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he shared "My concern was the fact that this will be a life-changing experience and the following commitment would be more than I could handle. But that did not turn out to be the case. It was the best decision I ever made."

17. While in the middle of his work in The Apparition in Germany, Sebastian Stan submitted many audition tapes. Once production had wrapped, he initially wanted to go home to Romania, but his instincts told him he should go to LA instead—and so he landed a screen test for of Captain America.

It went well, but the authorities decided to go in a different direction. He told MTV, "Kevin Feige and Stephen Broussard over at Marvel asked me to sit down with them and they talked about the comic books and Bucky and his entire arc, and I was really attracted to that."

He wasn't officially booked for the role of Bucky Barnes until April Fool's Day. He told Variety, "I was on set working on something and then this unknown number called me, and I don’t usually pick up unknown numbers. I kept shooting, and then, an hour or two later, I finally looked at my voicemail, clicked on it, and it was Kevin."

18. Anthony Mackie was Marvel's "unanimous first choice to play the character," so no auditions were really needed.

Feige told Variety, "That’s only happened a handful of times at Marvel. Mr. Mackie was one of those times."

"As we often do, when we’re casting, you cast for the immediate role at hand — which was Sam Wilson in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but if it all goes well, that can grow and evolve into numerous things. You want an actor who can do it all, which of course, Anthony can," he said.

19. Meng'er Zhang saw a casting call iin a group chat, looking for a woman who could speak both Chinese and English—but she had no idea it was for the role of Xu Xialing.

She submitted her self-tape, then she got a call.

"They flew me to do a screen test with Simu [Liu] and that’s when I found out I was auditioning for Shang-Chi," she told the Hollywood Reporter.

20. Tom Hiddleston was in a Shakespear production in London when Kenneth Branagh, the director, came to see his show. They then worked together on Wallandar on West End.

Hiddleston then auditioned for Thor in 2009. He shared to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, "I didn't expect to be casted at all."

Branagh decided to give him the role of Loki instead. The actor told the Hollywood Reporter, "We ended up spending about 12 months working together in different media."

21. Sophia Di Martino—who was already acquainted with director Kate Herron—bagged her role as Sylvie in Loki with only an audition tape.

She told the Hollywood Reporter, "I didn’t really have an in-person audition; we didn’t do any screen tests. I couldn’t travel at the time because I was pregnant, and Tom [Hiddleston] was in New York on Broadway."

"It was quite a risk that they took, really. And it never happens. You never get a job of this size off a tape, usually. My agent couldn’t believe it. They must’ve just been so sure," she said.

22. Lupita Nyong'o decided to play Nakia in Black Panther because of her pitch director Ryan Coogler's strength and persistence. There wasn't even a script yet at that time.

She only got the script six weeks before the production began.

She told Vanity Fair, "When I choose projects, I want to have faith that as an artist it will speak to a time when it is needed as much as it speaks to me at the time that I make it. I really understood this with Black Panther, when we were making that movie in such a different political climate than the one in which it came out...Ryan was speaking to a future relevance that he could not have predicted."

23. Brie Larson auditioned for Iron Man 2 and Thor but was unsuccessful—but Marvel kept an eye on her.

While working on Kong: Skull Island, she got a call from Marvel saying they were interested in casting her as Captain Marvel. She initially turned them down twice, saying that her anxiety and introversion might not be good reasons for her to be a good fit.

When Marvel asked for the third time, she discovered that her agents did not carry out her requests to decline the offer. So she met with the studio, pitching the movie and costume ideas to her.

In a video, she said, "I was very moved by what they were trying to achieve, [and] what they were talking about. It felt very progressive...I was very surprised by that, by the way they were talking about feminism [and] the way they were handling it. There were all female writers, [a] female director, [and it was] going to have as many female voices in this as possible."

24. Cate Shortland mentioned Florence Pugh when the Marvel execs asked her which actors she was excited to work with.

Shortland said to the Hollywood Reporter, "I’d seen Lady Macbeth a couple of times, and I really wanted to work with her."

"Then I met her in London with Brian Chapek, my producer, and we just got on really well. By putting her with Scarlett [Johansson], I knew that Scarlett would have someone on screen with her that could match her energy," she said.

25. Hailee Steinfeld has always been in Feige's mind to play Kate Bishop in Hawkeye, so he went to invite her for a meeting.

The meeting went so well and Hailee was offered the role on the spot.

Trinh Tran, executive producer, said, "That was pretty remarkable that we came out of that meeting shaking her hand and going, 'Okay you’re in. You’re gonna play Kate Bishop.'"

26. Zoe Saldaña the first choice for the role of Gamora—a personal preference of James Gunn, the director.

When he pitched the movie concept to Marvel, he mentioned the idea of casting her.

"I think that’s the only casting idea in my pitch that ended up happening," he said on Twitter.

27. Lastly, Gunn wanted to have Miley Cyrus cameo as Mainframe's voice when he watched her as a judge on The Voice Season 11.

He said to BuzzFeed News, "I was admiring the tone of Miley Cyrus's voice. I find her funny and likable and sweet. I liked that she cared about the contestants. So I was like, I think she would be a funny person to have as a voice [in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2]."

"So we contacted her, and she said yes. She came in and recorded, and she was a delight to work with," he said.

It's definitely amusing to hear these stories on how these actors came to be the characters they are known for in the MCU now, knowing how they are almost the perfect matches for their roles! Come to think of it, who do you even think could be Tony Stark if it's not RDJ?

Comment down your thoughts, or share this article for all your family and friends to see!

Sophia