Filmmaker Jon Favreau Shares Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Iron Man, Elf, and Star Wars

As actor and filmmaker Jon Favreau sees it, his latest directorial effort, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, marks the culmination of all the technical skills he’s learned in a 25-year Hollywood career. Favreau first experimented with visual effects while making the holiday classic Elf (2003), evolving with the technology across the first two Iron Man films, then live-action adaptations of Disney’s The Jungle Book (2016) and The Lion King (2019). “Star Wars affords you the ability to mix all these different techniques. And if it’s a little bit funky, it kind of feels [even more] like Star Wars,” Favreau tells Vanity Fair in a breakdown of all 10 movies he’s directed. “Whereas I don’t think in a Marvel movie they would sit together as elegantly.”

It’s a far cry from his directorial debut, the improv-laden crime comedy Made, which launched Favreau and his costar Vince Vaughn into the industry upon its 2001 release. “Didn’t really break through commercially,” Favreau tells VF, “but was a big step for us creatively.”

Box office wouldn’t be a problem for Favreau’s follow-up Elf, starring Will Ferrell as a human raised by elves who lives in a ’60s-style Rankin/Bass Christmas special. “This movie could’ve been cracked out of a time capsule from when I was a kid,” Favreau explains of his stop-motion vision for the North Pole. Adding to the wonder was the opportunity to shoot in New York City—and bring child-like uplift to town after the events of 9/11. “There was a heaviness,” Favreau recalled, feeling grateful for “a movie that brought the magic back to the city that I remember growing up.”

More than 20 years later after its blockbuster release, few are more surprised than Favreau that Elf has become a seasonal staple. “Nobody expected anything from the film. It ended up surprising people,” he explains. “It stuck around. But the big thing I’m most proud of is that it keeps coming back every year.”

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - APRIL 23: (L-R) Actors Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, director/actor Jon Favreau, actor Robert Downey Jr., actress Gwyneth Paltrow, and actor Don Cheadle attend the "Iron Man 2" Los Angeles Photo Call at The Four Seasons on April 23, 2010 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/WireImage)Jesse Grant

Less beloved was Favreau’s 2005 follow-up, Zathura: A Space Adventure, a sequel of sorts to Jumanji that, despite garnering a cult following over the years, temporarily halted his directing career. “Zathura did not do very well,” he says. “I learned later from [President of Marvel Studios] Kevin Feige that it made me a perfect candidate for Iron Man.”

Long before The Avengers redefined modern moviegoing, early Marvel Cinematic Universe titles stuck to a far-smaller budget, and Favreau came just at the right price. But he still had to convince the studio to hire Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark after the actor’s turbulent few years in the public eye. Plus, says Favreau, “They questioned his age for the role,” a memory that makes the director laugh given that a RDJ, age 41, when the 2008 original was shot, played the superhero well into his 50s.

With the 2010 sequel, Favreau says he got familiar with the “mixed blessing of expectation based on past success.” With more attention on Iron Man 2, it was Favreau’s job to tune out any noise that could interfere with the creative process. “Sometimes it’s protecting the set from the outside world. Sometimes you’re working with somebody very famous,” he says. After the first film reintroduced Downey Jr. to mainstream moviegoing audiences, “Robert became much more famous,” Favreau continued. “Their whole life shifts. These are all things that make it a more complex thing than just trying to build something from scratch.”

Although Iron Man 2 creatively underperformed with some audiences, Favreau maintains a sense of humor about both career highs and lows. When reminded of his critical and commercial flop Cowboys & Aliens (2011), he quips, “Ope, we’re out of time.” He maintains that working with actors like Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, in addition to lauded executive producers Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard was worth it. Says Favreau, “I still think the Western represents a high watermark of mythic storytelling in American cinema.”

The filmmaker lights up when speaking about his later projects, from the 2014 father-son cooking comedy Chef, born from Favreau’s passion for food, to his live-action Disney work. And he’s eager to stretch his talents further in the Star Wars universe. “I wish I felt the way I do now when I was in school. Because the older you get, the more you want to learn,” Favreau tells VF. “It’s a weird thing. I’m very fortunate that in my line of work I get to still be a student. And I get to teach too.”

All of the technology Favreau’s utilized for his career as a filmmaker aside, he tells Vanity Fair, “It’s amazing how much of a human endeavor all of this is.”