Jeff Bridges’ turn as Obadiah Stane – the former partner of Howard Stark and key villain of 2008’s Iron Man – set in motion what it meant for a big screen Marvel villain to be successful. Even 30+ movies and 15+ years on, Stane is a top-tier MCU baddie (and certainly better than Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash). While he was killed off in that initial MCU entry, Jeff Bridges is ready to return to the franchise, even giving a way it could happen.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Jeff Bridges said that when he originally signed on for Iron Man, the fate of Obadiah Stane was much different. With that, maybe the genre itself could lend to a return. “Well, when I read the script, Obadiah Stane falls in that big vat at the end, and in the script that I read and agreed to do, they pulled my suit out and opened it, and I’m not there. ‘We’re not shooting that scene!’ But who knows? It’s all science fiction. I could maybe pop up again.” In other words, consider that whole Obadiah Stane dying thing just a hiccup in the plan.
It seems unlikely that Jeff Bridges would actually reprise his Iron Man character, although he did champion Robert Downey Jr.’s own return, referring to the controversial decision to cast him as Doctor Doom for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. While we don’t expect that move to open a can of worms as far as having actors turn up as different characters, we could absolutely see Marvel bringing back past villains such as Stane via the multiverse.
Jeff Bridges would land one of Iron Man’s eight Saturn Award nominations, with wins for Best Science Fiction Film, Best Actor (Robert Downey Jr.) and Best Director (Jon Favreau). Bridges himself would lose out to Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. Honestly, outside of him being one of the best villains the MCU has offered to date, I think Bridges gives one of the best overall performances in the franchise.
Where would Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane in Iron Man rank in your list of best MCU performances? How about in the list of best villains? Load up the reactor and let us know below!