It's a binary thing.' We finally got them to agree to pay Ozzy Osbourne, so now we finally had the Comic-Con piece… a week before Comic-Con." I'm telling you that if you take the 'Iron Man' song out of this piece, it is not cool. "I said, 'Here's what I know-you guys pay me to tell you what I think is cool. The recently-released The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe reveals that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, Jeremy Latcham, and their team of creatives almost didn’t clear Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.” According to Latcham, he had to convince executives that spending the extra money for the song rights would pay off. Related: How Transformers Inspired Iron Man's Coolest MCU Trick And went a long way in establishing Tony’s penchant for rock and roll accompanied entrances.
However, since being used in the first Iron Man teaser at 2007’s Comic-Con, the character and the song have become irrevocably linked. “Iron Man” is a song written and performed by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, which was released on their 1970 album Paranoid. Despite its title, and distorted vocals at the beginning saying “I am Iron Man,” the song had no original connection to Tony Stark/Iron Man. Had he not uttered “I am Iron Man” at the end of that first film, and near the end of Avengers: Endgame (2019), the MCU would not be what it is today. Downey went on to reprise his role in two Iron Man sequels and various spinoffs including Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and every Avengers film thus far. Following Robert Downey Jr.’s debut as Tony Stark in 2008’s Iron Man, the billionaire, playboy, philanthropist became the unofficial pioneer of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. According to Jeremy Latcham, the former SVP of Production and Development at Marvel Studios, some executives didn’t want to pay for the Black Sabbath’s iconic song in Iron Man.