There wasn’t a dry eye to be found in most theaters when Tony Stark sacrificed his life to defeat Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. It was a fitting end to a hero who began his journey of redemption in Iron Man and evolved over the course of the saga. It also signified a radical shit in the status quo of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with expectations of a new Avengers team and greater villains to be defeated.
But if you’re not sure if you can move on from the loss of Tony Stark, there might still be hope. According to sources close to WGTC – the same ones that told us that She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel shows are coming to D+, which was correct – Pepper Potts may try to bring her husband back to life. She won’t be turning to science to do it though – at least, not at first – and will be taking the route of magic and mysticism instead.
From what we understand, one of the planned post-credits scenes in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness will see Pepper visit the Sorcerer and ask him if there’s any way to bring Tony back from the dead. Unfortunately for her though, he’ll tell her that he’s not able to do that, which will apparently set her down a path of finding another way to bring him back, likely through technology and AI.
At this juncture of the MCU, there are multiple notable characters besides Iron Man who’ve died, including Loki, Black Widow, Vision and Quicksilver, to name just a few. And more often that not, they don’t seem to stay dead for very long, always returning in one form or another.
As for Iron Man in particular, well, in the comic books, he’s died a number of times, only to return through some sort of twist-reveal or fake-out, so it’s not inconceivable that Robert Downey Jr. will reprise his role or make a cameo in the future. In fact, it’s been widely reported that he’ll indeed return but instead of being brought back from the dead like Pepper wants, it’ll be as an AI, and likely in the planned Ironheart TV show.
But still, it’ll be interesting to see this post-credits scene between her and Strange and while Iron Man may currently be dead in the MCU, it’s clear that he’ll continue to cast a long shadow over the franchise.
