It is, in fact, true that Tom Cruise was one of the original choices to star as Marvel's billionaire playboy-superhero Iron Man, but the producers went with Robert Downey Jr. instead, and they haven't looked back since.

"Iron Man" (2008) was the first of the modern Marvel Comics movies that have come to be known collectively as the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- since their storylines intersect (mostly in the Avengers movies) -- and the series has made pots of money for Marvel and Disney. Downey was the first face of that multibillion-dollar franchise.

That's not to say that they wouldn't have been as successful with Cruise in the lead, but they certainly would have been different.

Interestingly, it was reportedly Cruise who turned the role down. ScreenRant.com quoted him back in 2005 as saying: "If I commit to something, it has to be done in a way that I know it’s gonna be something special. And as it was lining up, it just didn’t feel to me like it was gonna work."

The idea of Downey being anyone's second choice seems crazy today -- he's one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood -- but at the time it made sense. Prior to "Iron Man," he was still mostly a supporting man, rehabilitating his reputation for being troubled and undependable (thanks to a few high-profile drug scandals). His most recent lead role at the time was in the 2005 mystery "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," which flopped at the box office.

Cruise, of course, has always had other options. In fact, it's unlikely he'd have had time to be a full part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, since he already had his own franchise on the go -- the Mission: Impossible movies. In 2005, he was in the midst of production on the third Mission: Impossible movie, and he's done two more since (with a sixth currently in the works).

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