Robert Downey Jr. Lost A Huge Batman Villain Role Before Iron Man

In another timeline, Robert Downey Jr. could have played a Batman villain instead of Iron Man. It's no secret that joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe led to a career resurgence for Downey Jr. In 2008, director Jon Favreau cast the actor as the lead in "Iron Man," the first flick in the billion-dollar mega-franchise. The rest was history, with Downey Jr.'s Iron Man emerging as the poster child for the MCU. Now, Downey Jr. has proven that he can break away from the quippy shoes of Iron Man by starring in Christopher Nolan's lauded "Oppenheimer," even earning a best supporting actor Oscar nod in the process.

But if things had gone differently, Downey Jr. could have collaborated with Nolan way sooner. During an appearance at an Aero Theater panel (via X user and critic Griffin Schiller), Downey Jr. revealed that he was in the running to play Scarecrow in "Batman Begins." He obviously didn't get the role — that privilege went to Cillian Murphy, who also stars in "Oppenheimer." At the Q&A, Downey Jr. admitted that he quickly realized that Nolan wasn't interested in him getting the gig. "I remember meeting [Nolan] for tea and I was like, 'He doesn't seem like he's really leaning in on this interview.' He was polite and all that but you can tell when someone is kind of like... it's not gonna go anywhere," Downey Jr. said.

Cillian Murphy's Dr. Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow is one of the few supporting characters to appear in all three of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies. Widely praised for his performance as the terrifying villain, Murphy didn't actually audition for the role. In fact, Murphy was gunning for the lead role of Bruce Wayne — he even screen-tested for the role.

In a chat with Entertainment Weekly, Nolan candidly discussed with Murphy how he knew he wasn't the right fit for Batman. Despite that, Nolan said he was eager to work with Murphy and went forward with the screentest. "When we had our first conversation I think both of us knew that you weren't going to wind up playing Batman," Nolan told Murphy. "But I really wanted to get on set with you, I wanted to get you on film," the filmmaker continued.

Strategic and playful, Nolan conducted the Bruce Wayne screentest with Murphy in the hopes of convincing Warner Bros. to give the Irish actor the Scarecrow gig. "Everybody was so excited by watching you perform that when I then said to them, 'Okay, Christian Bale is Batman, but what about Cillian to play Scarecrow?' There was no dissent," Nolan said. Murphy appeared in half a dozen of the creative maverick's films, including "Oppenheimer," his biggest film to date. And for Robert Downey Jr., missing the train on Scarecrow led to one of the most iconic roles in cinematic history. Sometimes, things just work out.