Jon Favreau Tried to Persuade Russo Brothers Not to Kill Iron Man In 'Avengers: Endgame'
“You can’t do this. It’s going to devastate people.”
Tony Stark’s death in Avengers: Endgame was arguably the biggest moment for the Infinity Saga, but it now turns out that the director of the original Iron Man from 2008 — Jon Favreau — tried to save Robert Downey Jr.‘s character from his final fate in the epic ensemble blockbuster. Promoting their latest Netflix movie The Gray Man, Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo recently appeared on Vanity Fair‘s YouTube series to break down some of the most iconic scenes from their previous projects. Turning to Endgame, the brothers revealed that Jon Favreau had tried to stop them from killing off Iron Man at the end of the film.
“Part of the pressure came from Jon Favreau, who called us up after he read the script and said to us, ‘Are you guys really going to kill Iron Man?’” Anthony said. “I remember pacing on the corner of a stage on the phone with Favreau trying to talk him off a ledge,” Joe chimed in. “Because he’s like, ‘You can’t do this. It’s going to devastate people, and you don’t want them, you know, walking out of the theater and into traffic.’”
Of course, the Russo Brothers “did it anyway,” and with the departure of Chris Evans as Captain America, a new trajectory was set for the future phases of the MCU, with new superheroes like Shang-Chi, the Eternals, and various Disney+ projects replacing the outgoing Avengers.
In other related news, Marvel’s FX team has offered a look at Christian Bale’s makeup test for Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder.
