Iron Man director Jon Favreau tried to talk the Russo Brothers out of Avengers: Endgame’s climactic twist.
Anthony and Joe Russo, who directed the 2019 Marvel team-up blockbuster, revealed that Favreau had contacted them personally when he learned their intentions for Endgame.
Spoilers follow – you have been warned...
Speaking in a new video for Vanity Fair, the Russos revealed that Favreau had pushed back on their decision to kill off the character of Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark (AKA Iron Man) at the end of the film.
In the film, Iron Man dies after using the Infinity Gauntlet to defeat Thanos and save the world.
Anthony Russo said that the filmmakers had faced “pressure” not to kill off Tony, who was arguably the most popular character in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise.
“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?’” he said.
“He did,” Joe Russo added. “I remember pacing on the corner of a stage on the phone with Favreau trying to talk him off a ledge. Because he’s like, ‘You can’t do this. It’s gonna devastate people, and you don’t want them, you know, walking out of the theater and into traffic.’ We did it anyways.”
Earlier this week, Marvel boss Kevin Feige revealed how the forthcoming Fantastic Four film will differ from previous adaptations.
Feige also took the oppurtunity to clear up a mystery many Marvel fans had been wondering about since the release of Endgame in 2019.
