The original studio that held the film rights to Iron Man let the character go back to Marvel Studios for an incredibly silly reason. Every MCU fan knows how Iron Man not only launched the B-list character into mainstream popularity but also kicked off the successful cinematic universe that is still running to this day with multiple films a year and streaming series. It is quite possible that, if not for Iron Man, the MCU would not exist.
Yet Marvel Studios didn't hold the rights to Iron Man when they first made plans to independently produce their own films. For years, Iron Man was in development at New Line Cinema, the studio that had launched successful series like A Nightmare on Elm Street, the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trilogy, the Blade trilogy, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. At one point during development at New Line Cinema, Iron Man was set to be directed by Nick Cassavetes, and Tom Cruise was considered for the lead role of Tony Stark.
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New Line Cinema let the film rights to Iron Man lapse in 2005 allowing them to go to Marvel Studios, and it appears it was one studio executive who changed the course of Hollywood forever. In a recent report in THR, a little tidbit about the behind-the-scenes development of Iron Man is mentioned. According to a source, New Line Cinema's founder Bob Shaye let the Iron Man film rights go because he didn't think the character made sense as he thought he was too heavy to fly.
While the MCU has made wonderful flights of fancy in comic book superhero storytelling more mainstream, in the early 2000s this type of thinking was commonplace. It is this creative mindset that lead to Galactus being reimagined as a cloud in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer or a Superman movie that almost featured Superman fighting a giant spider. However, this studio's short-sightedness is exactly why Marvel Studios wanted to produce their own films independently, so they could have creative control over their characters.
One wonders how the comic book superhero landscape might have been altered had New Line Cinema moved forward with their version of Iron Man. Not only would the character have not been played by Robert Downey Jr., but the MCU itself would have likely started out with a different hero. The MCU may have still kicked off if the studio instead chose to start with Captain America or Thor, but it felt like Iron Man was the perfect hero that the franchises needed at that moment.