Before Ghost Rider, Nicolas Cage Nearly Played A Very Different Marvel Superhero
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Nicolas Cage is an absolute legend. Along with his Oscar-winning turn in "Leaving Las Vegas" and roles in hits like "National Treasure," he's also played some superheroes in his day. Perhaps most notably, he played Ghost Rider in a pair of films released in 2007 and 2012. This came about years after Cage's "Superman Lives" was canceled. But before he suited up as Johnny Blaze, he almost portrayed another, very different hero from the pages of Marvel Comics.
In a 1997 report from Variety going over the "mania" surrounding Marvel movies in development at that time, it was revealed that Cage was still "firmly" attached to star as "his favorite "Marvel hero," Iron Man. Indeed, more than a decade before Robert Downey Jr. would take on the role as Tony Stark, it was Cage who was being eyed to bring the Marvel Comics hero to life. "Iron Man" became the unlikely superhero that changed Hollywood forever, so Cage taking on the role could have literally rewritten this chapter in cinema history.
At the time, the "Iron man" script was being written by Jeff Vintar ("Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within"), with "Cops" creator John Langley on board to produce alongside Elie Cohn and Stephen Chao. It's unclear who was being eyed to direct or where the project was being set up, but this was just one of many, many Marvel movies in development at the time that never saw the light of day.
As just one example, "Black Panther" was almost made in the '90s with Wesley Snipes, even though he also starred in 1998's "Blade." Mind you, this was ages before the idea of a cinematic universe even existed. That '97 article even mentions a "Hulk" film directed by Joe Johnston ("The Rocketeer") and a "Sliver Surfer" movie, among others.
Nicolas Cage as Iron Man could have reshaped Marvel's entire future
This was also around the time that director James Cameron was trying to get his "Spider-Man" movie adaptation off the ground. Cameron later called his unmade "Spider-Man" film "the greatest movie I never made."
The point is, there were a lot of superhero films swirling back then that would ultimately never be made. Nicolas Cage was part of that, as his and Tim Burton's "Superman Lives" remains one of the most curious, unrealized pieces of comic book cinema ever conceived. But Cage has been a vocal comic book fan for a very long time and, at least according to Variety at the time, Iron Man was his favorite hero.
It's worth remembering that, back then, Iron Man was far from an A-lister. It wasn't until "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau used a sneaky trick to cast Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, and their ensuing movie became a surprise hit, that he ascended to the A-list. When Cage was eyeing the role, it was for the love of the game, in the hopes of perhaps elevating a character he adored. It didn't pan out. Had it panned out? It could have reshaped Marvel's entire future cinematically.
Instead, Cage's "Ghost Rider" flopped its way to a franchise, with the first movie performing well enough on home media to justify a lower-rent, badly-regarded sequel several years later. It's a shame that Cage didn't get to try his hand at something more befitting his talents in the 2010s, but his unrealized turn as Tony Stark is always going to exist as a curious bit of "What if?" alternate cinema history.
You can grab "Ghost Rider" and "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" on DVD from Amazon.