This story is recounted in the wonderful book “MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios,” and there’s even a piece of the story I never knew about. Turns out, there was another spicy rumor that popped up during the filming of “Iron Man,” hinting that perhaps we’d see a cameo from Oscar-winner Hilary Swank.
This came from a MySpace post by Favreau where he thanked Caesar’s Palace for allowing the shooting of a casino scene and providing “Swank accommodations,” with “Swank” capitalized, which sent the fans spinning out with all sorts of theories on whether or not that was intentional and if so, who would she be playing?
“Spider-Man” producer Avi Arad ran with the buzz when interviewed by MTV Movies, reportedly saying “How did you know about that?” when confronted about that theory before ultimately confirming the non-existent cameo.
The question is, was Arad purposefully lying, or was he just out of the conversation? The book makes it pretty clear that he didn’t have a lot of input or pull at Marvel Studios, so it’s very possible he had no idea if the rumor was true or not.
Ultimately, what makes sense to me is that Favreau was purposefully muddying the waters to downplay the other leaks (the ones that were true), and maybe Arad was helping him to do that. Either that or Favreau’s finger slipped, accidentally capitalized “Swank,” and the fans did what fans do and read too much into it.
Either way, it’s an interesting moment in time captured by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards in their great book. Any Marvel Studios fan needs to add it to their Christmas wishlist!