Iron Man 2’s most interesting casting sabotaged theMCUmovie despite the promise it set up for the overall franchise. After seeing his wife Leslie Bibb act inIron Man, Sam Rockwell wanted to become part of the franchise’s vision. Though the actor initially lost out on the role of Tony Stark to Robert Downey Jr., he eventually got a role inthe MCU timelineafter talking to screenwriter Justin Theroux. Rockwell was cast as Justin Hammer, head of Hammer Industries and Tony’s business rival.
What makes Hammer a unique character is that he wasn’t actually meant to be in this chapter of the story initially. According to Sam Rockwell in an interview withGQ, when he expressed interest in playing a villain inIron Man 2, Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash was already being developed as the film’s villain. Production talked to Rourke andthe final decision was to split the film between the two villains. Justin and Ivan Vanko have an interesting dynamic and are two compelling villains, but when put in the same film together,Iron Man 2’s stellar castarguably went to waste.
Iron Man 2 Adding Another Villain Sabotaged The Impact Of Both
Though villains usually do play a key role in almostevery MCU movie, the main focus is almost always on the hero. A villain’s limited screen time has to be strategically juggled between fleshing them out as a character and developing their dynamic with the hero.Iron Man 2having two main villains meant that the time spent focused on each of them would be cut down drastically. It’s not a bad idea for villains to share the spotlight, but trying to push both Rockwell’s Justin and Rourke’s Whiplash as main villains in their own right meant that both were severely underdeveloped.
IfIron Man 2had focused on either Whiplash or Justin separately, either character would’ve been able to make a bigger impact. Instead,the two villains having to split up their screen time meant that a lot of potential was wasted. Rockwell and Rourke both did excellent jobs with the story that they were given, but there just wasn’t enough room in the film for both of them to shine.Iron Man 2having some pretty interesting villains should’ve been enough to make the story interesting, but since the character development was so underwhelming, it just made the film unmemorable.
Justin Hammer Deserved A Way Bigger Role In The MCU
Justin’s simultaneous admiration and jealousy of Tony’s success is what makes the character so intriguing, and he deserved a much bigger role in the MCU than he got - especially with Rockwell performing admirably in the role. Hammer’s parallels to Tony’s own story made him a great nemesis for the hero, and worked well with the themes of theIron Mantrilogy. As such, the smartest thing that thetrilogy could’ve done wasput Whiplash and Justin in two different movies, so that neither character’s potential would get wasted.
Rockwell still could’ve been anIron Man 2villain, but giving him a smaller role and building him up for focus inIron Man 3seems like it would’ve avoided these problems. That way, the focus ofIron Man 2could’ve stayed on Whiplash as originally intended while also giving Justin some time to develop. Not every film in a franchise needs a completely new villain, and it would’ve actually been interesting to see Justin carry over across the two films. Such a change would’ve made Rockwell and Rourke’sIron Man 2castings feel much more satisfying.
