In the months leading up to Iron Man's release, Marvel and Paramount threw money at marketing like it was going out of style.
Let's be real: Iron Man was a B-tier hero at best. Nobody was camping out for this guy the way they did for Batman, Superman, or even Spider-Man. So if Marvel wanted the world to care, they had to go nuclear on the promo.
Lucky for them, they had Tom Freaking Cruise. That alone was the best free advertising on the planet.
Walk down any street in America (hell, any street in the world) and you couldn't miss it: massive billboards, bus wraps, sides of buildings, everywhere you looked, there was Tom Cruise in the Iron Man suit, staring you down like the fate of humanity was on his shoulders. And right there tucked under his arm? Joey Grant as Pepper Potts.
The internet lost its mind.
Tom's die-hard fans had been hyped since day one of filming. Casual moviegoers? They were just now finding out and having full meltdowns:
"Wait… TOM CRUISE is Tony Stark?!"
"This is actually happening?!"
"How did I not know Marvel was dropping an Iron Man movie with TOM CRUISE?!"
Meanwhile, the comic book purists were having a very different freak-out.
"PEPPER POTTS IS ASIAN?! WHAT THE HELL, MARVEL?!"
"Where's my redheaded goddess?! Give us back comic-accurate Pepper!"
"She's pretty, sure, but she's not OUR Pepper!"
Vogue's editor-in-chief Sam Ryan even wrote a whole column basically saying Marvel had lost the plot and that Joey was "too yellow" for the role. The backlash was instant; people dragged him for the obvious racism, but he doubled down with "I'm just stating facts, her skin is yellow."
Most regular people didn't care that much. Yeah, some grumbled, but a lot were like, "Eh, it's progress. Hollywood's finally waking up." And the second anyone tried to trash Joey online ("Who even is this chick and why is she Pepper?"), her fans swarmed:
"Do you live under a rock? That's Joey freaking Grant."
"Go watch her H&M campaign and come back when you've seen the light."
"She won awards for those ads, dude. Marvel didn't pick her because they're dumb."
The argument raged on for weeks. You had three main camps:
1. "Marvel's doing the Lord's work for representation!"
2. "I don't care how talented she is; I wanted the blonde comic book Pepper and I'm allowed to be upset!!"
3. "Queen Joey can do no wrong, here's a 10-minute video of her looking flawless."
Honestly? The Pepper casting drama got so loud it almost overshadowed Tom Cruise actually playing Tony Stark.
And Marvel execs were sitting in their offices laughing their asses off. Controversy = conversation = sold-out theaters. Mission accomplished.
Then they dropped the big one: a three-and-a-half-minute trailer that hit like a missile.
Everyone expected to lose their minds over the suit, the explosions, Tom smirking in the helmet; standard superhero stuff.
But when the dust settled? The comment sections, the group chats, the film-bro podcasts; almost nobody was talking about the Iron Man suit.
They were talking about the ten seconds of screen time Joey got as Pepper.
There she was: long black hair, crisp white blouse, high-waisted slacks hugging that tiny waist, walking like she owned the building. Sharp, confident, a little playful, and completely in control. This wasn't the nervous, flustered comic-book Pepper who lived to clean up Tony's messes.
This Pepper looked like she could run the company, the Avengers, and the entire free world before lunch; and still have time to roast Tony to his face.
And then she dropped the line, looking right at Tony:
"I finally found something I can't live without… and that's you."
Soft, sultry, a little teasing; the exact vibe that makes a grown man's knees buckle.
Red lips, perfect winged liner, that lazy half-smile; suddenly every dude who swore they'd hate Asian Pepper was real quiet. Real, real quiet.
"Uh… okay, she might actually be hot?"
"Wait, isn't that the girl from the H&M ads?"
"How is she giving off both CEO energy and 'step on me' energy at the same time??"
The internet did a full 180 in 48 hours. The same guys who were crying about comic accuracy were now making edits set to R&B slow jams.
Marvel played that trailer on repeat for weeks. Hype reached fever pitch.
And then came opening night.
Thursday midnight, May 2008.
Marvel refused to do pre-sales (genius move). First come, first served. The Theatre in L.A. looked like Black Friday at Walmart. Lines wrapped around the block since the night before. People were straight-up camping on Hollywood Boulevard just to say they were there when Iron Man dropped.
Inside, the energy was electric.
Outside on the red carpet, Joey and Tom were doing press.
Reporters went right for the obvious:
"Joey, why take on Pepper Potts?"
She flashed that playful grin cameras love. "I get bored easy. Needed a new mountain to climb."
"Do you think you pulled it off?"
She tossed her hair, eyes sparkling. "I'm really happy with what I brought to her. You'll see."
"What was it like playing Tom Cruise's love interest?"
Before she could answer, Tom leaned in with that million-dollar smile. "It was easy. Joey's a pro; insanely talented, crazy hardworking. She created a Pepper people are gonna fall in love with. Just wait."
The reporter grinned. "Sounds like you've got a lot of confidence in her."
Tom shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Check the reviews tomorrow."
The Hollywood Reporter live tweet that night read:
"Tom Cruise just called Joey Grant's Pepper 'iconic' on the red carpet while the Iron Man midnight premiere literally breaks the box office. Whatever happens next, history is being made tonight."