Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame!
Avengers: Endgame lived up to its name and gave a few of its heroes a definitive ending. However, things could have played out differently. While speaking with Empire, the Endgame creative team shared a few alternate fates for the characters.
According to co-screenwriter Christopher Markus, “Marvel as a whole said, ‘We think it might be a time [for Tony to die], but if you have a good reason not to do it, feel free – we’ll do whatever.’ But it really did seem like, particularly with what Tony experiences after the five year break – that he has gotten married, had a kid, and is living a very healthy, peaceful life for once, and he’s had five full years of no surprises – that there wasn’t anywhere left that he needed to go.”
This was a guy who had made his full journey, all the way to the end, had experienced a full rehabilitation of his character from being the douchebag…at the beginning of the first Iron Man. To have him make the sacrifice that Steve Rogers would have made had he had the opportunity at that moment, just felt really right.”
Related: Chris Hemsworth Fought To Keep Fat Thor Throughout Avengers: Endgame
But with all this focus on Iron Man biting the dust, some fans were wondering…why not Captain America? There’s a simple reason for Cap’s survival, according to co-director Joe Russo.
“Once you kill a beloved character like [Tony], you’ve got to have hope at the end of the movie in some regard, and the only person to give you that hope is the other co-lead,” noted Russo. “Had we killed both the leads, I feel like people would have been walking out into traffic after the film. The intention is not to destroy people, it’s to hopefully tell a complex and dimensionalized story in a way, that makes them feel a varied range of emotion.”
You can read up on all of the additional details here.
What do you think about the idea of Tony making the sacrificial play for the Avengers in Endgame? Let us know in the comments below!
Recommended Reading: The Road to Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame – The Art of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
