Marvel's Iron Man Movie Had A Deleted Scene Featuring A Hip-Hop Legend

"Iron Man" kicked-off the Marvel Cinematic Universe and setting a precedent for everything that would come in its wake. It's therefore difficult to look back and critique a film that remains the best Iron Man movie and heralded the arrival of the most successful blockbuster franchise in cinema history. But there is one undeniably cool aspect of the film that never made it to the final cut: a scene featuring the great Ghostface Killah of Wu-Tang Clan.

Aside from maybe Mobb Deep, '90s New York Hip Hop didn't get much more raw than the Wu-Tang Clan. The Staten Island collective created some of the most gritty, hardcore rap of the era which when married with their usage of Kung Fu movie and comic book iconography gave them a certain mystique. That's why, for anyone who grew up with that music as the soundtrack to their adolescence, it's always sort of weird to witness members of the crew popping up in mainstream movies — like when Method Man played a kindly nursing home attendant in Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer's early 2010s comedy "Trainwreck."

Giving Ghostface Killah an "Iron Man" cameo felt entirely appropriate, however. The legendary rapper has gone by the moniker Tony Stark, or Tony Starks, since the early years and his 1996 album was titled "Ironman" — just one example of the way in which Wu-Tang used comic book elements in their style and approach. Unfortunately, the MC was cut from the final film along with a surprisingly lavish party scene.

Like any subculture that becomes subsumed by the mass media machine, there's no aspect of culture that Hip Hop hasn't touched. Movies are no exception. Rappers have been showing up in films for decades, often launching successful acting careers themselves. Aside from Common pivoting to Hollywood mid-way through his career and facing off against John Wick himself, there's Tupac Shakur, who made his acting debut in a Chevy Chase box office bomb and went on to have a successful run in films until his death in 1996. 50 Cent starred in one of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino's worst movies and similarly launched his own film and TV career, and that's to say nothing of the times rappers have been given cameos in major films.

Sometimes, however, we've been robbed of these Hip Hop cameos, like when Ghostface Killah was scrubbed from "Iron Man." The rapper was brought in for a scene in which Tony Stark throws a party in Dubai and which was shot but ultimately left out of the final film. It was, however, included in the special features on the original DVD and Blu-ray release for the movie. 

After asking Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts to prepare his Dubai home for a shindig, we cut to the party where Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark and Potts make their way through the crowd. The scene is like something out of a '90s rap video, with beautiful women dancing and lounging by pools. Soon, Tony encounters Ghostface, who greets him warmly and apologizes for still having Tony's plane. "I got your Bentley, so just bring it back full of gas," replies Downey's arms dealer before departing with two of the female guests.

In the version of the scene included on the "Iron Man" DVD there's no music and a very obvious green-screen in the background. But it is cool to see the lost Ghostface Killah cameo. Why the scene was cut considering it was clearly a fairly substantial thing to shoot remains unclear. After all, Marvel Studios didn't exactly have unlimited funds in the "Iron Man" days. What's more, keeping Ghostface in the final cut would have been a great way to honor the rapper for championing Iron Man long before Marvel finally made him cool with their 2008 movie.

As co-screenwriter Mark Fergus told Inverse, "Ghostface was plugged into the Tony of it all — the magic of that — long before [the movie]. I'm sure that's why Jon [Favreau, director] thought of it and immediately wanted to tie that in." The rapper later reflected on his cut scene, telling MTV, "I jumped in there for maybe 12 or 16 bars, nothing too major," before demonstrating his lack of ill will towards Favreau and the producers. "It was a good look for the kid because Robert Downey Jr. recognized me as soon as I seen him," Ghostface continued. "He was like, 'Yo, Tony!' ... For him to recognize me, I was kinda surprised by that. I didn't know he even knew about the kid [...] He's a cool dude and funny. Big up to Robert Downey Jr.

Ghostface wasn't the only musical icon in "Iron Man." The first enemy Iron Man killed in the MCU was played by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, and he actually made it to the final cut. Hey, at least Ghostface got a song "Slept On Tony With Dirt", on the "Iron Man" soundtrack.