The movie personality of Tony Stark was supposedly inspired by Musk's persona (at least from before he began spending most of his time in a futile attempt to woo Trump)

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/oct/28/robert-downey-j...

"In 2022, Iron Man screenwriter Mark Fergus confirmed that Musk had partly inspired the screen version of the Marvel hero, as both men share tech prowess, arrogance and a short fuse. He told New York magazine that Stark was as if “Musk took the brilliance of [Steve] Jobs with the showmanship of [Donald] Trump,” adding: “He was the only one who had the fun factor and the celebrity vibe and actual business substance.”"

Edit: I'm not quite sure why Musk was brought up unprompted though, made it seem like he has something to do with this company, but it doesn't seem like that's the case?

▲

kingkongjaffa 3 days ago | parent [-]

This is pretty revisionist. In 2008 when the first Iron Man movie came out, Trump wasn’t on anyone’s radar let alone used as inspiration for anything.

▲

Philpax 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Donald Trump has been a public figure for much longer than just the last ten years. By 2008, the Apprentice had already been running for four years. He ran for president in 2000. The portrayal of Biff Tannen in Back to the Future 2 (1989) was partially based on his public persona at the time.

▲

Talanes 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The 1993 movie Super Mario Bros. features both a major and minor antagonist clearly modeled after Donald Trump. He was a well known, highly referenced figure for DECADES before he entered politics. Where are you getting this idea that nobody in 2008 could have been thinking about Donald Trump?

He was literally in the middle of his 13-year run on Network tv. If he hadn't won the presidency, that would be talked about as the apex of his time as a public figure.

▲

pezezin 3 days ago | parent [-]

Isn't the alternate timeline version of Biff Tannen in Back to the Future 2 modeled after Donald Trump? That movie was released in 1989...

	▲	yahoozoo 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		The screenwriter said some time _after_ 2016 with never previously noting the connection so take that as you will.

▲

dotnet00 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The Trump bit may be revisionist (I admittedly hadn't heard of that comparison before), but the Musk bit goes pretty far back, here's a 2011 article about it: https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/08/robert-down...

And, having been a kid at the time, I remember excitedly talking with friends about how Elon Musk was the real life Tony Stark. We were young enough to be insulated from his controveries, and to not truly appreciate how impossible the Iron Man suit was.