Why Marvel Lied About Hilary Swank Having A Cameo In Iron Man
I am an old man. I'm not particularly old for, like, the Earth as Craig Robinson might say, but I'm just about entering my grandpa era in terms of the online culture. My time writing about movies online began in the mid-'90s while I was still in high school and that gave me a front row seat to the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe empire, so I remember that era very well.
When that first MCU end credits scene hit in "Iron Man," it was a mind-blower for many reasons. We'd never seen anything like that in blockbuster filmmaking. The shared universe idea is commonplace now, but back then the idea that Marvel could be building up to an "Avengers" crossover movie was so exciting.
However, for readers of movie rumors, that reveal was ... well, it was spoiled for them by the website I wrote for, Ain't It Cool News. Specifically, it was spoiled by my good friend and colleague Drew McWeeny, who wrote under the pen name "Moriarty," when he revealed that Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury was gonna show up at the end of the movie and recruit Tony Stark into The Avengers.
We had a great relationship with Jon Favreau back then. The site was an early and very vocal supporter of his first directorial outing, "Made," and I myself spent time on the sets of "Zathura: A Space Adventure" and "Iron Man," but AICN was in the business of getting scoops. So, when that major bit of news came to us, we ran it, much to the chagrin of Favreau and Marvel Studios.
I can't speak for Marvel's execs, but Favreau and Kevin Feige pretty quickly forgave us for revealing their hand prematurely. (This is leading to the Hilary Swank thing, I promise.)
Intentional disinformation or a slip of the finger?
This story is recounted in the wonderful book "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios," and there's even a piece of the story I never knew about. Turns out, there was another spicy rumor that popped up during the filming of "Iron Man," hinting that perhaps we'd see a cameo from Oscar-winner Hilary Swank.
This came from a MySpace post by Favreau where he thanked Caesar's Palace for allowing the shooting of a casino scene and providing "Swank accommodations," with "Swank" capitalized, which sent the fans spinning out with all sorts of theories on whether or not that was intentional and if so, who would she be playing?
"Spider-Man" producer Avi Arad ran with the buzz when interviewed by MTV Movies, reportedly saying "How did you know about that?" when confronted about that theory before ultimately confirming the non-existent cameo.
The question is, was Arad purposefully lying, or was he just out of the conversation? The book makes it pretty clear that he didn't have a lot of input or pull at Marvel Studios, so it's very possible he had no idea if the rumor was true or not.
Ultimately, what makes sense to me is that Favreau was purposefully muddying the waters to downplay the other leaks (the ones that were true), and maybe Arad was helping him to do that. Either that or Favreau's finger slipped, accidentally capitalized "Swank," and the fans did what fans do and read too much into it.
Either way, it's an interesting moment in time captured by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards in their great book. Any Marvel Studios fan needs to add it to their Christmas wishlist!