Two Decades of Jon Favreau
Sometimes it is hard to quantify an individual’s impact on the overall pop culture landscape but, as far as Jon Favreau is concerned, the enormity of his contribution to the current zeitgeist is both undeniable and of immense proportions.
With his hands in some of the biggest media properties of the past several decades, Jon Favreau is one of those silent industry players that has used his talents to help launch and underpin some of the public’s most beloved franchises, television shows, films, and more.
Humble Beginnings
It’s quite a journey for a man originally from the borough of Queens in New York City.
As IMDB points out, Favreau began as an indie regular and built up a bit of a cult following in that scene.
He used this popularity to branch out into mainstream, blockbuster film projects and television as well.
A Queens College dropout, Favreau, nonetheless, worked for storied financial firm Bear Stearns before relocating to Chicago in order to pursue a career in comedy.
Appearing at both ImprovOlympic and the Improv Institute, Jon Favreau’s major break can in 1993 when he starred alongside Lord of the Rings’ Sean Astin in the sports film classic Rudy.
Playing a football tutor to the titular character, Favreau’s major breakthrough with Rudy was not only on screen but also personal as well as he made a lifelong connection with fellow actor Vince Vaughn.
Their partnership would go on to insinuate Jon and his talents into almost every facet of Hollywood and television for the next several decades. The duo would go on to not only star in a string of movies together but also to direct and produce them as well.
Jon’s Big Break
Though Favreau went on to star in the film PCU and even in an episode of the hit NBC comedy Seinfeld, it wasn’t until his 1996 turn alongside Vaughn in Swingers.
Jon Favreau would go on to make appearances in a string of films as well as the hit NBC comedy Friends and the HBO mafia family drama The Sopranos where he starred as himself.
In 2001, in partnership with his friend Vince Vaughn, Favreau began to branch out into both directing and producing movies. As comedy was a central theme of many of his early roles, it, too, became the dominant tenor of his early directing and producing career.
His first major financial breakthrough as a director came with the Will Ferrell vehicle Elf in 2003.
After proving his box office bona fides to Hollywood, Favreau was given the reigns of the coveted Iron Man adaptation that had languished in the planning stages for years.
Not only would this film go on to become a major financial success for the director, but it would also spawn the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe that has done nothing less than dominate the 2010s and looks set to continue that supremacy into the next decade.
Favreau went on to direct the sequel to Iron Man but was largely hands-off for the third installment in the series.
Pursuing Success
During the ensuing several years, he pursued other acting and cameo roles as well as some directing and producing gigs until his return to commercial blockbuster prominence with Disney’s The Jungle Book film.
The Jungle Book was somewhat of a test case for Disney’s new CGI approach to old classics and, under Favreau’s expert stewardship, it not only achieved the results the House of Mouse wanted but also spurred forward plans for other classic CGI re-adaptations.
Praised for its technical execution and mastery but also a huge box office success, The Jungle Book seemed to indicate to industry watchers that Favreau could have somewhat of a “golden touch” when it comes to the big screen.
As a co-executive producer of Avengers: Infinity War, Favreau returned to the phenomenon he helped create. He then executive produced Avengers: Endgame while having a bit part in Solo: A Star Wars Story the year before. Though Solo was not the box office success Disney had hoped, it did give Favreau an in where Lucas Films’ marquee property was concerned.
For those of you keeping score, that means that Jon Favreau was involved with not only one but two major cinema franchises in the same decade – the MCU and the Star Wars Universe.
Solo wouldn’t be his only work for Star Wars, either, as he both wrote and executive produced The Mandalorian for Disney’s new streaming platform, Disney+.
As far as directing films goes, Disney invited Favreau back to take charge of their The Lion King CGI film adaptation.
He not only repeated his success from The Jungle Book, but he bested it, with The Lion King going on to become his top-grossing film so far.
What’s Next for Jon Favreau?
As far as future projects slated for the coming year, Favreau is working on a direct sequel to The Jungle Book as well as a nature series for BBC Natural History and Apple TV+.
Favreau is not only credited with helping kickstart the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but is also given the distinction of being the man who helped the entire superhero and comic book film genre come to such dominance.
It’s no wonder given Favreau’s penchant for both mastering nostalgia and positioning older properties into new formats.
Perhaps it was his deeply embedded 1990s pop culture psyche that has uniquely equipped him to understand current audiences, or perhaps it is just an intuition for what audiences want, but there’s little doubt that there is an indelible genius to Favreau’s accomplishments.
His ability to harness the power of the now to give new life to properties like Marvel’s characters and Star Wars can’t help but make him the go-to director and producer for any forlorn pop culture property from the last 30 years looking for a renewed lease on life.
Favreau’s list of plaudits is only expected to grow in the coming decade as both the streaming wars heat up and the money thrown at producers to churn out triple-A content continues to flow to creatives such as Favreau.
As his history shows, it would be money well spent. Check out our other entertainment articles here.
Research Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Favreau
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0269463/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/jon_favreau
