Smallville's Co-Creators Nearly Brought A Terrible Version Of Marvel's Iron Man To Life

Alfred Gough and Miles Millar might have created one of the most popular shows on The WB with "Smallville," but not everything they worked on proved as popular. Their 2011 "Charlie's Angels" TV show for ABC, for instance, remains one of only a handful of shows with a flat 0% Rotten Tomatoes score. Then there was their version of the abandoned Tom Cruise-led "Iron Man" movie, which never even made it past the script phase. That was hardly a surprise to Gough and Millar, however, who saw the writing on the wall once a New Line executive asked them to take away Iron Man's ability to fly.

Studios have a long and notorious history of meddling in creative projects. And while that can sometimes be a positive thing (like when Disney forced a revised version of "Toy Story" to make Woody more likable), it can also be disastrous (like with the nightmare production process on "Alien 3"). Then there are the times directors straight up ignore studio notes, like when Marvel's "Creative Committee" tried to force major changes to James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" (including removing the needle drops that became such an integral part of the film's appeal). 

With their "Iron Man" movie, on the other hand, Gough and Millar didn't even get a chance to ignore studio suggestions since the film never saw the light of day. But given what we know about the project, that's probably for the best.

When it debuted in 2008, "Iron Man" became the unlikely superhero movie that changed Hollywood forever. Robert Downey Jr. was Tony Stark, and director Jon Favreau found the perfect balance between drama and humor, synthesizing a formula that ultimately turned the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the most successful franchise in U.S. history.

Prior to Downey's debut in the armor, though, "Iron Man" had undergone a long and arduous journey to the big screen, beginning with Universal acquiring the film rights to the character in the early 1990s. Those rights changed hands several times, winding up with New Line by the end of the decade. It was at this point that Alfred Gough and Miles Millar were hired to write a script.

During a 2025 appearance on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, the pair explained how they were approached about an Iron Man project by Marvel Studios founder Avi Arad after coming off the hugely successful "Spider-Man 2." But there was an issue right out of the gate, with Gough admitting he had no prior knowledge of the character. "I hadn't heard of Iron Man," he explained, "and Avi goes, 'Perfect.' And he goes, 'Here's what he is. He's a billionaire who sells weapons. He's got an alcohol problem and there's an accident, now he's trying to make it work, you know, make it better.'" Gough claimed that he and Millar were drawn in by that description simply because it "wasn't another teen superhero."

The duo then worked on multiple drafts over a year before meeting with Arad, Kevin Feige, and New Line founder Robert Shaye to go over their ideas. This is when they were hit with what might've been one of the strangest studio suggestions ever made.

Recalling his and Miles Millar's meeting with Avi Arad, Kevin Feige, and Robert Shaye, Alfred Gough explained how "[Shaye] got all tied up that Iron Man could fly." He continued, "[Shaye] goes, 'Because Superman could fly. Can [Iron Man] just leap from building to building?' And we sort of all walked out of that meeting and we're like, 'We don't think this is going to happen here.'" 

Otherwise, the duo recalled how at the time Tom Cruise was still in the conversation to lead the unrealized "Iron Man" movie. But after their inauspicious meeting with the Marvel and New Line top brass, the project fell apart. That was for the best, as Marvel would soon re-acquire the film rights to the character and produce the version that ultimately became a massive hit. As Gough put it, "To Kevin and Avi's great credit, then they kind of got the character back and did right the version which basically is, I mean, that movie is fantastic."

Prior to the 2008 movie, however, Tom Cruise actually turned down "Iron Man." In an IGN interview, the actor revealed that he didn't feel comfortable taking on the role: 

"[Marvel Studios] came to me at a certain point [...] As it was lining up, it just didn't feel to me like it was gonna work. I need to be able to make decisions and make the film as great as it can be, and it just didn't go down that road that way." 

Again, that was for the best. Who knows where the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be without 2008's "Iron Man." On the other hand, maybe if Gough and Millar were tied up in Marvel Land, we would have been spared "Charlie's Angels."