The effort to truly give Tony Stark (and, by extension, RDJ) a proper send-off was so intense that the goal was to not even do reshoots if possible. “Endgame” directors Joe and Anthony Russo were also among those who participated in the Vanity Fair cover story on the Iron Man actor’s life, and they rehashed some insights into how those final moments played out.
In the original version of the script, Tony Stark doesn’t say a word in his final showdown. Thanos says, “I am inevitable,” and Stark just snaps his fingers. However, in post-production, the directors felt a response was needed, and when the line “I am Iron Man” was pitched, they knew they needed to reshoot the scene. When they originally approached him, Downey Jr. didn’t want to revisit the emotional weight of the character and the overall MCU experience.
“We’d already said tearful goodbyes on the last day of shooting,” explained Joe Russo. “Everybody had moved on emotionally. We promised him it would be the last time we made him do it — ever.”
Anthony Russo added, “That was a difficult thing for him to do, to come back to pick up that line. When he did come back, we were shooting on a stage directly opposite where he auditioned for Tony Stark. So his last line as Tony Stark was shot literally a couple hundred feet from his original audition that got him the role.” Robert Downey Jr.’s tenure as Tony Stark came full circle. It ended right next to where it began, and the powers that be at Marvel Studios have clearly made a commitment to keep it that way.
