Jenna Ortega Jokes About Tiny MCU Role in Iron Man 3: 'They Took All My Lines Out'

Did you catch Jenna Ortega's blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in Iron Man 3? It's easy to forget, but the now 22-year-old star of Netflix's Wednesday and the upcoming Beetlejuice 2 made her film debut at age 11 in the 2013 Marvel film. Her brief MCU appearance shows her, wheelchair-bound, as the daughter of Miguel Ferrer's Vice President Rodriguez during a Christmas scene.

Twelve years later, Ortega jokingly reflected on her Iron Man 3 experience with Entertainment Weekly, revealing that her lines were cut and her role significantly reduced. "I did it once," she said. "They took all my lines out. I’m in Iron Man 3 for a quick second. I take up the frame, I have one leg and I’m the vice president’s daughter." Her Death of a Unicorn co-star, Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), playfully suggested a future MCU role for her, hinting at Marvel's habit of strategically planting character seeds.

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Ortega wryly added, "They even took my name away...but I count that, and then I move on." Her role, initially perhaps a more substantial subplot, was ultimately minimized in the final cut. However, the child actor who played that small part has since become a major star. Should Marvel offer her a new MCU role, it's certainly a possibility she'd consider.

While Iron Man 3 is considered one of the weaker MCU entries by some, it was a box office triumph, grossing over $1.2 billion globally. It remains the ninth highest-grossing superhero film of all time. The MCU landscape was vastly different then; superhero films today face greater challenges in achieving similar box office success. Perhaps Ortega's involvement could help change that.

The question remains: which MCU character would be the perfect fit for her?