The Diversity Test: Iron Man

Iron Man (2008)

The movie that began it all, that sparked a movie series no one even imagined and may have changed film franchises in ways yet unseen.  It was a massive success and still held in high regard, regularly ranked near the top of the ten Marvel films released in the last nearly seven years.  Let's take a look at the cast:




Main Characters

Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.)

a.k.a. Iron Man, billionaire, playboy, genius, philanthropist.  Our hero who evolves from a self-absorbed, egotistical, womanizing, sarcastic, weapons-selling jackass to a self-absorbed, egotistical, womanizing, sarcastic, public-protecting superhero.  And slightly less of a jackass.

Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow)

Tony's loyal and long-suffering assistant.  Also his closest friend.

Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Terrence Howard)

Tony's military liason and his other closest friend.  Also rather long-suffering because, well, that's what it is to be Tony Stark's friend.

Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges)

Tony's business partner as well as old partner of Tony's deceased father.  The main villain of the first film that started a trend of, well, forgettable villains in the Marvel films, one of their few but most glaring weaknesses.

Supporting Characters

Harold "Happy" Hogan (Jon Favreau)

Tony's driver and friend, also long-suffering.

Raza (Faran Tahir)

The leader of the Ten Rings terrorist organization and the first and more minor villain in the film.  He kidnaps Tony and forces him to construct the Stark Industries Jericho Missile.

Yinsen (Shaun Toub) 

A scientist kidnapped by the Ten Rings to help Tony build the Jericho Missile and care for him as he recovers from injury.

J.A.R.V.I.S. (Voice of Paul Bettany)

Tony's computer assistant and A.I.  Based in his home, JARVIS can communicate and monitor remotely with the Iron Man suit.

Minor Characters

Christine Everhart (Leslie Bibb)

A reporter for Vanity Fair who Tony takes to bed, but is later key in holding Stark Industries accountable for the sale of their weapons to the Ten Rings as well as Stark's link to Iron Man.

Abu Bakaar (Sayed Badreya)

A member of the Ten Rings terrorist organization and one of Raza's top enforcers.

Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg)

An agent with the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division (a.k.a. S.H.I.E.L.D.) who tries repeatedly to get an audience with Tony.

Miscellaneous

• The most notable cameo belongs to Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, with two words igniting the imaginations of countless fanboys and fangirls everywhere.
• The movie has some built in diversity by setting a good portion of it in some unidentified Middle Eastern/North African/South/Central Asian nation (the actors have every region covered with Iranian Shaun Toub, Egyptian Sayed Badreya, and Indian and Pakistani-American Faran Tahir.  It's possible that the map seen in Stark's showdown with the F-22s also gives an idea of the country's location) (Edit: It's Afghanistan).  While this does increase the diversity seen on screen, it's difficult to argue it's all that positive of a portrayal.  Other than Yinsen, the people we see in the region are either terrorists or victims living in small, remote villages.  To be sure, such people exist in the world, but it feels like Hollywood falls back on these portrayals fairly easily.  Terrorists have also been known to attack and capture major cities, like with ISIS taking Mosul in Iraq.  On the other hand, it's easier to demonstrate Tony taking on a small group of terrorists and saving small village of people than singlehandedly fighting off a terrorist invasion of a city of half a million people.  That said, you could have an entire discussion about the White Savior trope and showing a mountain village all the time feels like only portraying the U.S. as small towns in South Dakota.  Yeah, they exist, but there's more to those places that we don't see all that often.  In any case, it's an interesting topic to think about.

Scores

Of our main characters, two are white men, two are not.  Diversity Score: 50

Expanding the cast to include everyone, we get five characters portrayed by white men out of eleven characters.  Here's how it breaks down:

White Men (cast)*: 5

White Women: 2
White Men (characters): 4
Non-WHMs portrayed by white guys: 1 (J.A.R.V.I.S.)

POC

Men: 4

Women: 0

Women Diversity Score: 18

Overall Diversity Score (cast): 55
Overall Diversity Score (characters): 64

*See Thor post for explanation

Next: Scrape the bottom of the MCU barrel with The Incredible Hulk!