"The Sopranos" has delivered some amazing performances throughout its six-season run, making it even easier to forget some of the supporting talent who briefly flashed in and out of episodes became big stars. For a short time, David Chase's TV mafia masterpiece featured appearances from eventual "The Wire" star Michael K. Williams, future Riddler Paul Dano, and even Lady Gaga (although she may not be a fan of the performance herself). However, one appearance that may stand out more than the others is that of actor, director and co-architect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jon Favreau.

The director of "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2" plays an exaggerated version of himself after Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) is invited to the set of one of Favreau's films. After getting involved in rewriting the scene, Favreau takes an interest in Christopher's lifestyle when he learns of his ties to mobsters and slips in an anecdote to include in one of his scripts, angering Chrissy. While his stay on the show is brief, Favreau plays a key role in adding more complications to Christopher's struggle with his ties to his family and his hunger for a better life outside of the crowd. For Favreau, it was an experience he relished, appearing in one of the most groundbreaking television series ever made. As it turns out, he even contributed to the show similar to how Christopher contributed to his fictional film in the series - except his contributions came with much less risk of someone getting hit.

It's safe to say that no one knows Jon Favreau better than Jon Favreau, so when it came to sharing the screen with Christopher Moltisanti's character, he had a few suggestions for "The Sopranos" creator David Chase on how he would handle it. the situation. Talking to a fan of Reddit in 2013Favreau recalled his experience, saying, "I was really honored to be invited by David Chase to play myself on 'The Sopranos.' the real Jon Favreau met the real Sopranos, he wouldn't be very comfortable at all."

The eventual director of "Elf" suggested taking a different route and playing things up a bit for laughs. “The original script I got had me playing it as if I was one of the guys. I gave David the note that I wanted it to be really uncomfortable and scary, because even though everyone likes the romantic idea of ​​gangsters, if you ever met them in real life, it could be downright impossible." This happens with the appearance of the fake Favero before saving Christopher and taking his story with him.

Coincidentally, it also won't be the only time Tony Soprano's cousin meets someone who played Tony Stark's sidekick in the MCU: Christopher was also dumped by the man played by Trevor Slattery.

Before it is killed in season 6 after a car accident and at the hands of none other than The Sopranos (right, Ton?), Christopher tried to pitch his mobster horror film, Cleaver, to acting legend Ben Kingsley, who stars as Trevor Slattery in MCU and appeared as herself in the show. It goes about as well as you'd expect, again showing the show's brilliant way with comedy in a primarily dark and corrupt world. It also marked a great turnaround for Kingsley, who at this point was coming off the success of the British crime drama Sexy Beast, which reinvented the actor and gave us one of the best performances of his career. By the end of the episode "Luxury Lounge", they end up having an awkward encounter, with Kingsley letting out what could have been one of the funniest F-bombs in the entire show.

Fortunately, in reality, the Oscar winner's presence was much more welcome, according to Ray Abruzzo, who played Carmine Lupertazzi Jr. on the show. Abruzzo spoke highly of Kingsley and his time on set during an appearance on the podcast "Speaking Sopranos" led by Imperioli and his colleague Steve Scirripa. "I remember walking down the hall before we (went) in, and he was massaging my shoulders." As for Abruzzo, “It was just another actor having fun. I loved those scenes. "He was great."