….
Filming of [Iron Man: 1] was completed three days ago.
Forty-four weeks. 126 shooting days.
Thousands of hours of footage.
….
The dubbing studio was the same as before Regal - intimate, soundproofed, with just enough room for the essential people.
It was way back during [Death Note] movie voice acting for Ryku the god of the death.
Regal stood behind the glass partition, watching the waveform dance across the monitor as Paul Bettany's calm, articulate voice filled the room.
"…Good evening, Mr. Stark."
The crisp British tone carried both warmth and precision.
Regal leaned toward the mic in the control booth. "That's gold, Paul. Just the right balance of intelligence and understatement. Try the next one - 'May I remind you that the last time you did this, you ended up in the ER.' Give it a touch more dry humor."
Paul smiled faintly from inside the booth.
"Ah, the joys of playing a computer with better manners than most humans." He took a sip of water, adjusted his headphones, and delivered the line flawlessly in a single take.
It had been only half an hour, yet they were already twenty percent through the entire session.
For dubbing work, that was lightning speed.
At this rate, Regal was sure they would be completely done within the hour.
He glanced sideways at Paul through the glass booth.
"Honestly, Regal." Paul said through the intercom after finishing a line. "This might be the easiest job I have ever had. Two hours in a chair, and I am off to Tuscany for a vacation, the moment this wraps."
Regal laughed. "You have earned it, Paul. Not every AI can sound like this human."
He turned to the monitor showing the current scene: Tony Stark walking into his sleek Malibu workshop. The AI's first real moment.
"Let's roll from the top." Regal said.
Paul adjusted his mic. "As you wish, sir."
The studio filled again with the perfect, disembodied tone of J.A.R.V.I.S. - calm, witty, unfazed by the chaos of his creator.
It was surreal how naturally Bettany captured it.
….
To Regal's right, Stan Lee stood with his hands clasped behind his back, a faint smile tugging at his face.
During the whole filming, except for the cameo role again, he never showed up, and even now he had dropped by merely to observe.
"Like always, Regal." Stan said at last, his voice gravelly but warm. "Your instincts end up being right. First it was the [Spider-Man] web-shooter, you made it a device instead of some weird organic thing - and now this."
Regal turned to him, genuinely curious. "You mean J.A.R.V.I.S.?"
Stan said, nodding. "In the comics, Jarvis was a human butler. Edwin Jarvis. Polite, loyal, sharp as a tack - but still just a man. You turned him into an AI. I didn't question it back then, because I could see what you were doing. You were keeping Tony from feeling like Bruce Wayne with a different haircut."
It's ture… the original comic Stan has written J.A.R.V.I.S was human.
This has to be changed at any cost.
More so here, since both universes are under one roof, that difference matters even more.
"…and like always." Regal said softly. "Thanks for trusting me, sir."
Stan gave him a sideways look. "You are polite only when the cameras are off, huh? You were awfully strict with an old man who can't act worth a damn."
Regal blinked, then laughed. "You are talking about your cameo?"
"The Hugh Hefner one, yeah. You had me redo it six times! Four! I have done fewer takes playing myself in cartoons."
"Sorry about that." Regal said, raising his hands in mock surrender. "For the record, it still turned out great. Though… I will admit, it took more shots than your Spider-Man cameo."
Stan's smirk softened into a nostalgic grin.
Behind the glass, Paul was still recording. "You have been working continuously for seventy-two hours. May I suggest a break, sir?"
Paul glanced through the glass at Regal, grinned, then delivered the next one: "Shall I have Miss Potts informed of your impending cardiac arrest?"
The booth chuckled. Even in dire warnings, J.A.R.V.I.S. maintained that dry British wit.
Ten more minutes, Regal estimated, and the entire J.A.R.V.I.S. session would be done.
Stan's eyes stayed on the booth but his tone shifted, quieter now. "You know the reason I wrote Iron Man, right?"
Regal looked at him. "Not clearly, no."
Stan leaned against the console, his eyes on the screen where Tony worked in his workshop.
"Iron Man was a product of the Cold War. When I first conceived of him in 1963, I purposely created a hero that would go against the sensibilities of my counterculture readership. Tony Stark was an unlikable, wealthy weapons manufacturer - a war profiteer. And I wanted to challenge myself to make readers like him anyway."
Regal stayed quiet, listening.
"This is something I didn't know." Regal admitted. "I knew the basics, but not that."
"Of course you didn't. It's not in the comics. It's in the why behind the comics." Stan's eyes crinkled. "I wanted to prove that you could take someone fundamentally unlikable and make them heroic. That redemption was always possible. That people could change."
Through the glass, Paul delivered another line: "Perhaps it's time to stop tinkering and actually build something that works, sir."
"I also based Tony on a real person." Stan added. "Howard Hughes. The eccentric, brilliant playboy inventor and entrepreneur. The man who built an empire and then slowly went insane. Hughes was fascinating because he was both a genius and a cautionary tale."
"This I was aware of." Regal said, a little proudly.
"Well, color me surprised." Stan deadpanned, though his eyes were laughing.
They watched Paul work for another moment.
"You know why your version works?" Stan finally said. "Why is this movie going to succeed?"
"Tell me."
"Because you understood what I was really writing. Iron Man was never about the suit. It was about a man who built armor, literal and figurative, to protect himself from the world. A man who thought machines were safer than people because machines couldn't hurt you. A man who had to learn that being human meant being vulnerable."
Stan gestured at the screen, where Tony and J.A.R.V.I.S. worked together in perfect synchronization.
"Robert Downey Jr. lived that story. And you gave Tony an AI companion instead of a human butler because you understood that Tony needs to learn to trust people again. He starts with a machine because that's safe. But eventually, he will need to trust flesh and blood. Pepper. Rhodey. The Avengers."
Regal felt something tighten in his chest.
"You are building toward that." Stan said softly. "Aren't you? This isn't just one movie, but something bigger."
"Yeah." Regal admitted. "I am."
"Good." Stan clapped him on the shoulder. "Because that's what I always wanted. Not just heroes. A universe where they all mattered. Where they all connected."
….
Paul took a breath, preparing for the last sequence. The screen showed Tony in the damaged suit, barely functional, fighting for his life against Obadiah.
The engineer cued it up.
"Sir, power levels are critical."
Paul's delivery was perfect - calm but urgent.
"Power reduced to fifteen percent. Diverting power to chest RT."
He paused, letting the weight of it sink in. Tony was dying, and JARVIS was calmly informing him of the mathematics of his death.
Next came the flight sequence warnings: "Altitude is nearing critical. I recommend a landing."
And then, as Tony pushed the suit beyond its limits: "Sir, I have located the structural weakness in the MK-I armour plating. Suggest immediate evasive action."
The final recording was the Gulmira rescue sequence: "Sir, there are civilians present. I recommend a cautious approach."
Each line shows a different facet of JARVIS - technical advisor, concerned friend, tactical support, moral compass.
"Cut." The engineer called. "That's a wrap on J.A.R.V.I.S."
Paul pulled off his headphones, gave a thumbs up through the glass. "Vacation time!"
Everyone laughed, but Regal was still sitting with those lines.
J.A.R.V.I.S. wasn't just Tony's AI.
He was his friend, and his conscience.
The voice that kept him grounded when the suit threatened to become everything.
And someday - Regal already knew this, already saw the arc stretching years into the future, J.A.R.V.I.S. would become something more.
Would become Vision.
But that was years away.
Right now, they have one movie.
"Good session." Stan said, heading for the door. "I will let you finish up here. I have got a meeting with the publishing team about the next wave of comics."
"Stan?"
The old man turned.
"Thank you." Regal said. "For trusting me with this, and letting me change things."
Stan smiled, that warm grandfatherly smile that had charmed millions.
"You know what I learned creating characters for sixty years?" he said. "The best ones are the ones who change. Who grows. Who become something better than they were. That's not just Tony Stark. That's you too, kid. You're building your own suit of armor. Your own way of changing the world."
He winked. "Just don't let it go to your head. We have already got one genius billionaire playboy. We don't need two."
"Don't worry that won't happen, and you are always there to set things right if something does happen."
Stan's grin widened. "Touché."
The two men also started walking as the studio lights dimmed.
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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