Emilia Clarke almost made Marvel debut in 'Iron Man 3'
What's the story
Days after Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke talked about turning down a role in the 2015 erotic romance drama 50 Shades of Grey, it seems she was supposed to be a part of yet another popular project, but it didn't work out. Recently, reports surfaced that the 32-year-old actor was also originally a part of the 2013 Marvel film Iron Man 3.
Details
'Iron Man 3' screenwriter made the revelation on Instagram
Iron Man 3 screenwriter Drew Pearce recently shared a throwback Instagram post from an early table read for the film, where he is reading lines as Tony Stark's artificial intelligence Jarvis (originally voiced by Paul Bettany). Pearce revealed that, along with Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle (who played War Machine), Clarke was a part of the team, adding "long story, the script changed."
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Pearce later gave a clarification in the comments
"When you do early table reads, a lot of new roles aren't cast, will change, etc. Friends of the production come in to help, just so you can hear the words out loud, even if they're not the person who'd play the role onscreen due to age etc. Emilia, only one season into GoT at the time, kindly sat in. And was great, btw."
Instagram Post
Here's the Instagram post from Drew Pearce
Character
Which character would Clarke have played?
Whether Clarke's role went to someone else or was removed from the script remains unclear. If the former is true, Clarke most likely was playing the role of Rebecca Hall's Maya Hansen- the only other female character apart from Pepper Potts, which was already being played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Hansen was a geneticist whose work helped Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) create Extremis.
History
Hansen was replaced as primary villain because she's a woman
The script of Iron Man 3 (quite famously) went through several iterations before one could be finalized. In one of the earlier versions, Hall's Maya Hansen was supposed to be the primary antagonist, before Aldrich Killian (played by Guy Pearce) came into the picture. However, then Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter asserted that boys wouldn't buy toys of a female villain.
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Here's what Rebecca Hall had to say about her role
"I signed on to do something that was a substantial role. She wasn't entirely the villain- there have been several phases of this- but I signed on to do something very different to what I ended up doing," Hall said in a 2016 interview.