Just last week, Avengers: Endgame released on Blu-Ray and 4K, and fans have been eager to relive the experience from the comfort of their living room couch. Sure, it has a few missteps, but overall, the Russo Brothers’ farewell to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is hard to fault. After all, it brought together some of the franchise’s most memorable heroes for one nail-biting conclusion and wrapped up plot threads and character development that were put into place over a decade ago.
Of course, even for all the good it does, there are plenty of fans who were frustrated with the direction of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely’s screenplay. One thing that some viewers are hung up on has to do with Iron Man’s fate, and the ultimate sacrifice he made towards the end of the film.
Those who’ve already had the chance to watch Avengers: Endgame for themselves will remember the moment when Tony Stark and Thanos go head-to-head during the Battle of Earth. While the Mad Titan was able to retrieve and don the Infinity Gauntlet once more, Iron Man managed to stealthily steal all six stones and assemble them into a weapon fashioned out of his hi-tech suit.
Even though he ended up sacrificing himself, it seems Markus and McFeely had considered a number of variations on each major scene and were by no means told that Iron Man had to be killed off at the end. As ComicBook.com reports, the two were given the instruction to explore every option for each character. In the end, though, it looks like they came to the decision that the movie worked best if Tony Stark sacrificed himself to save the rest of the universe.
“We weren’t there to just kill characters off,” said Markus. “We were told, ‘If the story demands it, you can take people off the board. But if there’s a good story to be told and no one dies, go ahead and tell that one too.’ In Endgame, we were trying to finish arcs and for Iron Man/Tony Stark to give up his life and sacrifice himself for the good of the universe seemed like a really good narrative closure for the billionaire playboy who had been learning over the course of several films (to be a better person),” he added.
In fact, it looks like the topic of who should be killed off was thoroughly discussed between McFeely, Markus, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, and the Russo brothers.
“It’s a topic of conversation that we all — Joe and Anthony Russo and Kevin Feige and ourselves — had together,” McFeely said. “We didn’t waver very much. I think we talked early on about how we could have gone either Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) or Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) on that cliff on Vormir. But we felt Black Widow’s death was better for the arc we were trying to give her.”
While we do think that Iron Man’s death was a fitting end for the character, it didn’t make the scene in question any easier to watch. In the event you were outraged over the way Avengers: Endgame concluded, you could always sign a petition to have Tony Stark resurrected. Though, if we’re being frank, we doubt it’ll make a difference in the long run.
