Jon Favreau Originally Wanted To Direct Captain America

Jon Favreau played a key role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as he directed the movie that started it all – Iron Man, but he originally wanted to direct the origin story of a different hero: Captain America. Through over a decade, the MCU has brought various characters and stories from Marvel Comics to the big screen, building an extensive connected superhero universe that continues expanding with new TV shows and movies. As such, the MCU has seen a variety of directors come and go, all of them bringing their personal style to some of the most popular Marvel characters, and one name that played a big role in the development of the MCU is Jon Favreau.

The MCU kicked off in 2008 with Iron Man, directed by Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, and Favreau as Happy Hogan, Tony’s friend and bodyguard. Although a minor character, Happy has been a recurring presence in the MCU and has even served as a link between Stark and Peter Parker (Tom Holland). Happy appeared in all Iron Man movies, as well as in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and is set to return in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but Favreau’s involvement in the MCU goes beyond playing good old Happy Hogan. Favreau returned to the director’s chair in Iron Man 2, but by the time Iron Man 3 was in development, he left the spot to Shane Black.

Still, Favreau has a special place in the history of the MCU (and the hearts of fans) for directing Iron Man, which was praised for the performance of Downey as the narcissistic genius-turned-hero and for Favreau’s direction, who gave the characters and story a realistic approach and left the comic book vibe aside. However, directing Iron Man wasn’t always in Favreau’s plans when it came to joining the Marvel Universe, and if he could have chosen a character to direct an origin story about them, he would have gone with none other than Captain America.

The book The Story of Marvel Studios, by Tara Bennett and Paul Terry, shares a variety of secrets and stories about the history of the MCU, and among those is that Jon Favreau was interested in directing a Captain America movie. Favreau shared that when in talks with Marvel, it wasn’t clear “who the superheroes were”, but he told them to let him know if they got Captain America. Favreau added that he thought “you could really have a funny, fun angle with that” and that there was a lot of potential in a Captain America movie. Steve Rogers eventually joined the MCU in 2011 with his first solo movie, Captain America: The First Avenger, directed by Joe Johnston. The movie covered the origins of the title hero – from Steve Rogers joining the army even though he wasn’t strong enough in terms of health, to his full transformation into a Super Soldier and hero. Iron Man and Captain America met in The Avengers and led the team on various missions before their fallout in Captain America: Civil War, but they eventually managed to leave their differences aside in order to save the world in Avengers: Endgame.

Details on what Jon Favreau’s vision for a Captain America movie was like are unknown, but he would have probably injected it with a bit more sense of humor than Captain America: The First Avenger, though if he had directed a Captain America movie, he probably wouldn’t have directed Iron Man. In the end, everything worked out for the best, and directing Iron Man, as well as playing Happy Hogan, benefitted Jon Favreau’s career a lot more than a Captain America movie could have, and Happy has allowed him to stay in the MCU for longer.