The death of an Avengers: Endgame hero drew tears from fans around the world. It could have gone in a very different direction, according to Anthony and Joe Russo.
Jon Favreau, the director of the first two Iron Man films, has said—and repeated—that he was adamant killing the character he helped bring to the screen would be a colossal mistake. While he has since acknowledged his misstep (see the article below), it’s easy to imagine how such a decision—and likely many others—must have given Marvel Studios pause along the way.
Indeed, year after year, characters like Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, or Steve Rogers have become touchstones for countless fans. And in an expansive universe like the MCU, killing a character in one film effectively means killing them in all the sequels (barring a resurrection, of course), so every death is fiercely debated… or not. For Anthony and Joe Russo, discussions about the death of one of the original Avengers apparently boiled down to one question… timing.
RUSSO SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Recently at a Q&A hosted by the outlet CBR, the Russo brothers confirmed a rumor that had circulated online for a while, including on ComicBookResources. Yes, there was a time when it was seriously considered that Iron Man would die at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, slain by Thanos (Josh Brolin), as Joe Russo recounts:
“That happens a lot in these writer’s rooms, right? […] We try to explore every path. We consider every possibility. We always say: ‘The best idea wins.’ And often, you have to… you have to test the waters a bit, stretch the concept, see where it leads us. At some point, we thought: ‘They won’t see it coming. This might be the perfect place to do it.’”
By “the perfect place to do it,” Joe Russo clearly refers to the moment when Thanos impales Iron Man with his own blade. The author of these lines admits that, seated in a 2018 movie theater, he indeed believed the hero’s time had come. The opposite decision was ultimately made:
“But we would have had to figure out how he [Tony Stark] could still appear in the next film. So we said, ‘Too bad—let’s save him for the next film!’”
That was likely the wiser call. Iron Man’s death in Endgame may be the emotional high point of the entire MCU. At least, until new, equally devastating losses arrive? The next clues arrive on July 29, 2026 with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and especially on December 16, 2026 in Avengers: Doomsday.
