How 'Avengers: Endgame' Perfected Tony Stark's Emotional Journey (And Whether or Not We'll See Another Iron Man)

As Avengers: Endgame continues to blow-up the box office, more and more details about the mega-sequel continue to trickle out. Part of this is due to the nature of the Endgame marketing: Marvel took extreme lengths to keep virtually all plot points a secret to avoid spoilers. But now that the film is out, and being seen by everyone, people have questions. Lots and lots of questions. Rather than, say, letting the movie speak for itself, the folks behind Endgame have been answering as many questions as possible.

In a new interview, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely delve into Tony Stark’s journey throughout the film. Spoilers follow.

Endgame has approximately ten billion characters in it, but we can all agree that Tony Stark is the main protagonist. Tony’s been in that position since the very beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Endgame effectively brings his journey to an end by having him die, sacrificing himself to save the universe. But before he shuffles off into the big cinematic universe in the sky, Tony has an elaborate journey through Endgame. A journey that takes him back in time to meet a younger version of his father (played by John Slattery, stealing nearly the entire film with one scene).

Speaking with Fandango, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely spoke about how father-son reunion scene came about. “We knew that we wanted a sort of no-going-back hiccup to happen during at least one of the time-heist journeys,” said McFeely. “So when we knew that Henry Pym and Howard Stark had sort of a friction relationship back in the day, and Peggy Carter helped found S.H.I.E.L.D, and that there was undoubtedly a time when they were all together, if you decided that they were out of Pym Particles and had only one way to go, that was pretty delightful. And it was going to be able to hit a bunch of buttons. Remember, all the journeys sort of allow each character to deal with emotional stuff, and obviously Tony always had daddy issues.”

Makes sense. It also gives Robert Downey Jr. to do what he does best: balance his inherent smarm with a kind of inner-sadness he always seems to possess. An extra layer of emotion is added to the scene because it takes place when Tony’s mother is pregnant with him, and Tony himself has recently had a child.

“It just worked out so, so nicely that he could go back to when his mother was pregnant with him, now that he is a father,” Markus said. “I mean it’s a very strange setup. He is a father and older than his own father, while talking to his father, whose wife is pregnant with him. Once you realize that you have the opportunity to do that, there’s no way you’re not going to do that.”

But now that Tony is dead, will someone else be taking up the Iron Mantle? As far as Markus and McFeely know, nothing is certain yet. “There certainly are a bunch of people with suits who are alive,” Markus said. “[But] there are no Iron Teen scripts as far as I know.”

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