In annals of Hollywood history, there are plenty of great alternative paths fans still wonder about today. What if Tim Burton had made a third Batman film? What if Stanley Kubrick had made Napoleon? Now, Iron Man has sparked a new pondering period.
A fan-made timelapse of the first film with Robert Downey Jr. from way back in 2008, which boils the story down to just one minute, recently hit Twitter and the distributor’s logo at the front has sparked a ton of conversation. For those who may not recall, before Disney bought Marvel in 2009, the company teamed with Paramount to produce their initial run of movies through to Iron Man 3. At the time. people who cover the industry speculated they passed up an ocean of profits due to immediate cash flow issues, and, given the mixed response of the latest batch of projects, several are longing for the darkness which might have been.
Elsewhere in the replies, different fans of how the franchise has been in the past say Universal also would have been a better home and another says this is not necessarily the biggest miss in corporate history. In their view, an extinct entity passing up its successor, which sparked up a brand new industry, is a far more stinging ‘what if’ which also could have altered entertainment as we know it.
The missed opportunity mentioned there is of course true and while others are mentioning the fact Coke has had the chance to acquire Pepsi multiple times, others are quite pleased with Disney’s ownership of the onetime “House of Ideas.” This allows content from Marvel to be in the parks (which is a plus for one), and, for a different fan, complaining about Disney doesn’t make much sense now, considering so many “fans” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe were loving what they put out very recently, too.
Though they did miss out, Paramount is certainly not hurting these days. Their decision to put out Top Gun: Maverick resulted in it becoming one of the highest-grossing movies of all time and, they have also had great success with the horror movie Smile as well. Long-lasting businesses usually find their way, and, while they do not have any superheroes at the moment, they clearly are still trying when they can, though the recent Secret Headquarters movie with Owen Wilson is a bit too silly for one Twitter commenter.
Apart from this project, the only other hero-adjacent things available on Paramount Plus right now are the Ninja Turtles movies.