Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame!
Tony Stark’s MCU journey came to a conclusion in Avengers: Endgame. Iron Man’s sacrifice ensured that Thanos was finally defeated. But believe it or not, that wasn’t always the way the story was set to go. While speaking with Canada.com, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely revealed that they were looking for ways to spare Tony.
“We considered ways to let Tony live and whether there was a story there,” said Markus. “But [dying] was the last thing he needed to do to become a fully-realized hero. There was never a better story than that.”
However, they felt that death wouldn’t have the same impact for Captain America/Steve Rogers.
“As for Captain America, he was willing to kill himself twice in his first movie. So it didn’t seem like a particularly interesting thing to have him do,” noted Markus.
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“Having Cap return from war and put his shield down seemed like the end of an arc for him,” added McFeely.
According to Markus, there wasn’t a mandate in place to kill permanently remove any characters.
“We weren’t there to just kill characters off,” said Markus. “We were told, ‘If the story demands it, you can take people off the board. But if there’s a good story to be told and no one dies, go ahead and tell that one too.’”
Do you think the Endgame writers made the right call for Tony Stark and Steve Rogers? Let us know in the comments below!
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