Elon Musk and his longstanding friendship with ‘Iron Man’ Robert Downey Jr

Observant Marvel buffs may have seen tech entrepreneur Elon Musk lurking around in one of the scenes in Iron Man 2, which left many of his admirers taken aback.

While the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has several times in the past drawn comparison with the Marvel superhero, turns out he has been quite involved in the films as well.

Jon Favreau who helmed the first two Iron Man films confirmed in an earlier interview that Musk had done Robert Downey Jr.⁠—who essays the role of Tony Stark aka Iron Man⁠—several favours in the past.

Talking on one of the episodes of Recode Decode, Favreau said: “Robert Downey, when we were prepping ‘Iron Man,’ said, ‘There’s somebody we should sit down and talk with.’ [He] said, ‘This is a guy who can give us some insight into what it’d really be like to be Tony Stark.’”

And that explains Musk’s cameo in the Marvel film which features a brief light-hearted exchange with Downey’s character of Stark⁠—which is often linked to Musk himself.

Favreau further confirmed that the filming of the second instalment was also done at SpaceX: “He let us film there for free. He’s been a very good friend of the Marvel family there, and we’ve maintained a friendship with him.”