Robert Downey Jr. has revealed that he met with Christopher Nolan to discuss the Scarecrow role in Batman Begins, the first entry of The Dark Knight trilogy, but ultimately lost out to Cillian Murphy.
X/Twitter user @griffschiller shared a video clip of a Q&A session with Downey from a recent American Cinematheque presentation for Oppenheimer, in which the actor revealed that he was once in talks to play Scarecrow in Batman Begins but quickly realized he wouldn't be getting the part after meeting Nolan.
RDJ dropping BOMBS at the @am_cinematheque conversation. He apparently met w/Nolan for SCARECROW for Batman Begins only to be beat out by Cillian Murphy. Woah! #Oppenheimer pic.twitter.com/zBE9tts47E
— Griffin Schiller (@griffschiller) February 4, 2024
"I remember meeting [Nolan] for tea, and I was like, 'He doesn't seem like he's really leaning in on this interview,'" Downey Jr. recalled. "He was polite and all that, but you can tell when someone is kind of like, 'It's not gonna go anywhere.'"
Murphy went on to play Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka Scarecrow, in 2005's Batman Begins and reprised the role for Nolan's other Dark Knight entries. The actor and director have worked together numerous times since, with Murphy also starring in Inception, Dunkirk, and most recently Oppenheimer, alongside Downey Jr.
Meanwhile, Downey Jr. gained global recognition helping to launch the MCU with 2008's Iron Man, in which he starred in the lead role as billionaire playboy-turned-superhero Tony Stark. It became, by his own admittance, "some of the best work" of his acting career, though he feels "it went a little bit unnoticed" because of the genre.
As the MCU ballooned into the behemoth it is today, it became clear that none of it would have happened (at least not this way) had Downey Jr. not been involved, with Marvel boss Kevin Feige admitting just last year that they "wouldn't have a studio" without the actor, which is crazy considering he nearly lost out on that role as well.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X @AdeleAnkers.
