The Story Behind How Iron Man 2 Nearly Set A Major Battle At Disneyland And Why It Didn’t Happen
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the biggest movie franchise of all time, and with the massive Disney company behind it, it feels like there’s nothing it can’t do. It’s easy to forget, however, that the MCU started before Disney bought Marvel. In the early days, some things were considered that involved Disney, but couldn’t be done.
I was at the recent D23 event in Anaheim, California, and was lucky enough to attend a panel discussion on the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. It’s an iconic event in Disney history as the company that would become Walt Disney Imagineering developed four attractions at the event that would become part of Disneyland in various ways. The fair is also connected to Marvel, as Iron Man 2 used the fair’s location for a major scene, but also considered another iconic spot: Disneyland itself.
Kevin Feige And Jon Favreau Considered Using Disneyland For Iron Man 2’s Finale
Midway through the D23 panel moderated by the great Leonard Maltin, Marvel Studios president, and noted Disneyland nerd, Kevin Feige, and director of the first two Iron Man movies, Jon Favreau, joined the conversation. Feige then revealed that when the production of Iron Man 2 was considering major spots for the film’s finale battle, Flushing Meadows, NY was decided on only after they concluded that Disney would never consider a request to use its flagship theme park…
I think we even wrote, on a board, locations for the finale of Iron Man 2. Disneyland was on there. Disney did not own Marvel at the time and we thought, they’re not going to let us do that. And then the [1964] World’s Fair came up because Jon has a very personal connection to the World’s Fair.
Even if Disney had owned Marvel, it feels like Disneyland appearing in Iron Man 2 would have been a long shot. Disneyland has only allowed filming inside its park a few times over its nearly 70-year history. Most of those have been for its own movies, and none of them have resulted in the park being blown up, which seems likely to have been the case here. As awesome as a superhero battle at the top of the Matterhorn would look, one has to imagine the Matterhorn itself would come out of that looking a little worse for wear.
Instead, Iron Man 2’s Stark Expo takes place at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the site of the 1964-65 World’s Fair. Jon Favreau had grown up across the street from the park, though he was born the year after the fair concluded.
Other Iron Man 2 Scenes Are Inspired By Walt Disney And It’s A Small World
While Disneyland did not appear in Iron Man 2, the man who built it was, in a manner of speaking. Jon Favreau talked about the old films of Howard Stark, (played by John Slattery) that Tony watches in the movie, and how those were filmed in a way to intentionally reference Walt Disney’s on-screen persona. Favreau said…
As Tony Stark is looking into his late father’s legacy, looking at the films that were inspired by Walt Disney’s presentations of Epcot and Disneyland, we tried to invoke some of that.
The movie would also include an original song, written by the late Richard Sherman, half of the songwriting Sherman Brothers duo. They wrote multiple great and optimistic songs for the 1964 World’s Fair, including “It’s A Small World” and “It’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" for the iconic Carousel of Progress.
A major Marvel movie finale at Disneyland would have been incredible to see, and maybe now that Disney does own Marvel, such a thing can happen one day. Still, Iron Man 2 brings in plenty of references to classic Disney, showing how important the studio was to Marvel, even before they became joined.
Iron Man may not have come to Disneyland, but Disneyland will come to Iron Man. At the same D23 event, it was revealed that Robert Downey Jr. will reprise his role as Tony Stark for an upcoming Disneyland Resort attraction, Stark's Flight Lab, which is set to be added to the existing Avengers Campus area at Disney California Adventure Park.
