In the lead-up to Avengers: Endgame, a lot of people were worried that either Captain America or Iron Man would meet their maker. And while the former managed to get through his final adventure in one piece, the latter completed his run in the MCU with a noble sacrifice.
It was inevitable, really, and co-writer Stephen McFeely recently told The New York Times that they always knew Endgame would be the end of the road for Tony.
“Everyone knew this was going to be the end of Tony Stark,” he said.
And while it was certainly sad to see him go, at least he went out in style, getting the chance to utter one last line before he saves the universe. If you’ll recall, it occurs during the final battle with Thanos. As he thinks he’s got the Avengers beat, the Mad Titan tells Tony, “I am inevitable,” before snapping his fingers.
But nothing happens and we soon see that Stark’s nanotech Iron Man armor has managed to snatch the stones and place them onto his gauntlet. Before he snaps his fingers though and makes the heroic sacrifice, Tony looks at Thanos and says, “And I am Iron Man.”
It’s a terrific moment, and one that brings the MCU full circle, but it turns out that it almost didn’t make it into the film. Speaking at a recent Q&A, directors Anthony and Joe Russo explained that they only came up with that line during the editing process.
“Tony used to not say anything in that moment. And we were in the editing room going, ‘He has to say something. This a character who has lived and died by quips.’ And we just couldn’t, we tried a million different last lines. Thanos was saying “I am inevitable.” And our editor Jeff Ford, who’s been with us all four movies and is an amazing storyteller, said ‘Why don’t we just go full circle with it and say I am Iron Man.’ And we’re like, ‘Get the cameras! We have to shoot this tomorrow.’”
Good thing Ford thought of the idea, as it truly is one of Tony’s best moments in Avengers: Endgame and makes that scene all the more powerful. It does make us wonder, though, what else might’ve been a last minute addition and which other lines of dialogue or epic moments only came about once the film had been shot.
It’s likely we’ll get more insight into that once the movie hits Blu-ray later this year, but for now, it’s nice to have this little bit of trivia and we look forward to learning more about the production process as time goes on.
