Iron Man’s Best Supporting Characters In The Movies, Ranked By Importance

Iron Man was the superhero that started it all in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was this movie that set the stage for the successful franchise that created several name-brand heroes, many of which no one had ever heard of before. Iron Man and its sequels were as much a success for the characters that surrounded Tony Stark as it was for Shell Head himself.

The Iron Man supporting players proved important on different levels. Some pushed Tony to become greater than he could have been before. Some of them bonded with him and became as popular as Iron Man did in the movies. There were also three that eclipsed their roles as supporting characters and became leads in their own movies and Disney+ shows years after breaking in with Iron Man.

10 Senator Stern

Senator Stern didn’t play a huge role in the Iron Man movies, but he had an important part in the stories. He was on hand with the Senate congressional hearings concerning Tony Stark operating as Iron Man, and ended up put in his place by the hero.

He also had a fun moment where he had to honor Tony Stark, but then his biggest role came later in a Captain America movie, where it turned out he was a Hydra operative. This was set up from the start with his antagonistic role toward the newest superhero.

9 Phil Coulson

Agent Phil Coulson was a beloved fan favorite who didn’t last long in the MCU. Agent Coulson ended up dying in the first Avengers movie, trying to help S.H.I.E.L.D. contain Loki. However, Coulson got his start in the very first Iron Man movie.

Before the world met Nick Fury, it was Agent Coulson who was the liaison between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Tony Stark, or more accurately with Pepper Potts. He was who ensured that Iron Man had the allies he needed in the government, which eventually led to the formation of The Avengers.

8 J.A.R.V.I.S.

For most of the Iron Man movies, J.A.R.V.I.S. was nothing more than a computer AI system that helped Tony Stark when he was inventing things. Named after his father’s right-hand man, Edwin Jarvis, the J.A.R.V.I.S. system ended up becoming The Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

However, before this transformation, J.A.R.V.I.S. played a huge role in Iron Man movies, helping Tony and keeping him from stepping over the line more than once.

7 Howard Stark

Howard Stark played a very important role in the Iron Man movies, but only in flashback scenes, limiting his effectiveness. It was Howard’s brilliance and his drive to be the best that instilled those same traits in his son.

However, it was also Howard’s ability to push people away and seclude himself from the world that gave Tony some of his worst characteristics. Howard played an important part in the first movie, as it was his company Tony had to save, and the second, with the Stark Expo playing a big role.

6 Harley Keener

Harley Keener played a very important part in Iron Man 3 as the young boy who helped a beaten and broken Tony Stark, and someone who Tony helped in return. While much of the movie focused on Mandarin and A.I.M., the scenes with Harley were extremely important.

It was through Harley that Tony finally got his head straight again, and what he did for the boy was as important as anyone he saved as Iron Man. Seeing Harley at Tony’s funeral showed how important he was to Tony and the Iron Man franchise.

5 Nick Fury

Nick Fury didn’t show up in Iron Man until the end of the first movie, in the end-credits moment. That was where he told Tony about the Avengers Initiative. He brought in Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and then finally started the Avengers with Stark as one of his first choices.

What keeps Nick Fury below someone like Black Widow is that Nick did everything in Iron Man’s movies from behind the scenes. He pulled the strings, but he didn’t actively do anything of note in the Iron Man series.

4 Black Widow

Black Widow made her MCU debut in Iron Man 2. While she went on to become more associated with Captain America in his rivalry with Iron Man, it was Tony who she first interacted with. Nick Fury sent Natasha to work for Tony undercover, with orders to keep an eye on him.

Black Widow worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., but she took sides, first with Captain America in Winter Solider and then with Cap again in Civil War. She started off as someone sent in to keep Tony Stark under control but ended up going off the rails herself.

3 James Rhodes/War Machine

In the Iron Man movies, two different actors played James Rhodes, but both of these portrayals were very important. After Terrence Howard played Rhodey in the first movie, Don Cheadle replaced him in the next movie and fulfilled the character’s destiny.

Rhodes became War Machine and ended up fighting alongside the Avengers. Rhodey was so important as a supporting character that he will step into his Iron Man’s shoes following his death in the Disney+ series Armor Wars.

2 Happy Hogan

Ever since the first movie, Tony Stark had one man by his side through thick and thin, and that was Happy Hogan. Happy was the man who started out as security for Tony and then moved on to a huge role in the Spider-Man: Homecoming movies.

To understand how important Happy Hogan was for Iron Man, he was the man who protected the hero, ensured that no one hurt his boss, and eventually moved on to take his boss’s place when it came to watching out for Spider-Man. Happy Hogan was one of Iron Man’s best friends in the MCU and stood by him to the end.

1 Pepper Potts

The most important supporting character in the Iron Man movies was easily Pepper Potts. She started out as his assistant and then became much more. Pepper ended up falling in love with Tony and the two even had a little girl by the time Avengers: Endgame rolled around.

Pepper was more than just a love interest for Tony Stark. She was his moral compass and she was who helped him realize he could be more than just Iron Man. In the end, Iron Man was the greatest hero of them all, and he owed a lot of that to Pepper Potts.

About The Author