The death of Iron Man in last year’s Avengers: Endgame was a big moment for the MCU that left Marvel fans misty-eyed around the world, so it’s no surprise to hear that the loss of Tony Stark also came as a blow to Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo.
During a recent panel at C2E2 in Chicago, Ruffalo was asked who he thought delivered the best superhero performance, and after a bit of joking around with moderator Clare Kramer, the MCU regular ultimately settled on his co-star Robert Downey Jr., saying:
“Robert. Robert’s my hero. His Iron Man is like definitive and he started all this. I always marvel at him when I’m working with him, so… I mean, he’s done it the longest and done it with the most class and grace and generosity so yeah, I’d say Robert and when he died, that broke me.”
Ruffalo then offered a brief nod to the notorious fake scripts used for Endgame, suggesting that even he didn’t know about Tony’s passing in advance, explaining:
“We thought he was getting married. That’s what was in my script.”
As the star of 2008’s Iron Man, Tony Stark was the original face of the MCU. His recent Endgame death consequently felt like the end of an era for Marvel fans – a feeling that was emphasized just minutes later by Captain America’s retirement.
Since then, we’ve had reason to believe that both Hawkeye and Thor will soon be passing their respective torches on to new heroes, and it looks like something very similar will be happening for Bruce Banner in the upcoming She-Hulk TV show. Nonetheless, Ruffalo has teased new ideas for his character as recently as this weekend, when he told C2E2 attendees that he’d like to make a movie showing Bruce’s transformation into Professor Hulk.
Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long to learn of Marvel’s future plans for Ruffalo, but in the meantime, you can see another Avengers: Endgame casualty back in action when Black Widow hits theaters on May 1st.
