From playboy to paranoid protector, Iron Man has been on a fascinating character journey since 2008, and Peter Parker plays an important part of that. After he recruited him in Captain America: Civil War, Tony Stark has felt responsibility for the teenager, pivoting between encouraging and curtailing the fledgling hero. Stark hopes that Peter will do some good, but hopes he’ll avoid making the same mistakes he did.
Tony is Peter’s superhero mentor and, even though they differ on the best course of action sometimes, it’s clear they have a lot of respect for each other. The dynamic they share is one of the most enjoyable and interesting in the whole MCU, but how did it first come about? Well, according to Avengers: Infinity War writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who’ve penned several films in the franchise, it was their idea.
Speaking on Kevin Smith’s Fat Man on Batman podcast, the duo explained:
“We came up with that. But when Tom Holland gets in a room with Robert Downey Jr., it is the relationship. It’s a young actor with a seasoned actor and he doesn’t wanna mess up. There’s a few lines in that scene in Peter’s room in Homecoming where Downey’s just like ‘move the leg, I gotta sit here,’ and he’s literally telling Tom Holland to move his leg. That’s not Tony Stark saying that.”
Given what we’ve seen of Holland and Downey Jr. in interviews, it’s easy to buy into what the writers are saying here. I mean, just one look at the Infinity War press tour will show you that these two actors bring a lot of themselves to their performance, and their dynamic on screen is probably pretty similar to what it is in real life, as Markus and McFeely say.
On that note, it’ll be fascinating to see how Tony deals with the death of Peter in Avengers 4, as it’ll surely weigh very heavily upon him. Not to mention that the playboy/philanthropist is nursing a whole lot of guilt already, not just from Civil War but from his weapon dealing days. Add the death of his young protégé to that mix and you’ve got a very vengeful Iron Man on your hands.
We can only imagine what lengths Stark will now go to rid himself of the “curse” of Thanos. And lord help the Mad Titan if Pepper Potts was among those who faded away in Infinity War…especially if she actually is pregnant. The film may have even set Stark up to make the ultimate sacrifice: to save Peter Parker and the universe at the cost of his own life.
But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. First, we’ve got Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel to get through, and once those two pics are out of the way, then we’ll get to reunite with Tony and, most likely, Peter, as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes come together to take down Thanos once and for all in Avengers 4.
