Robert Downey Jr. Was Against Filming Iron Man’s Iconic Endgame Scene

Robert Downey Jr. actually didn’t want to film Iron Man’s iconic final scene in Avengers: Endgame initially. In 2008, MCU kicked off with Iron Man debuting the actor as Tony Stark. From that moment, Downey has played the role ten times over these 11 years. His last appearance was in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame which also marked the end of Infinity Saga.

We all agree that Tony’s journey in Marvel ended tragically but still in a sensible way.

Even though Smart Hulk’s reverse snap was successful in bringing back those who perished in the snap, Iron Man did realize that Earth was still in danger cos of Thanos’ existence from 2014. The film ended up with him sacrificing to secure the universe’s future.

Tony snatched the Inifitny stones from Thanos and embedded them on his gauntlet. Before snapping his fingers, he said “I am Iron Man” as a response to Thanos’ “I am inevitable”. It was a perfect callback to the first Iron Man film where he had uttered the same words.  But it almost didn’t happen because Downey didn’t want to shoot the scene.

In the original Endgame cut, Iron Man actually didn’t say anything! As Russos were editing the film, they came up with the idea that Iron Man should be saying his iconic line. It had been a while since the film was wrapped and when RDJ was informed of the reshoots, he didn’t want to.

Feige said, “Robert was telling me, when he found out that we wanted to come back and shoot a new version of, arguably, the most emotional shot, at first, he didn’t want to do it.”

Anthony Russo said that Downey didn’t want to shoot the scene because he didn’t want to play the character again and it is understandable. Filming Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame was extremely emotional for all of those who were involved especially because it was the culmination of MCU’s first decade of storytelling.

But it was most difficult for RDJ since he was with the franchise from the beginning. Knowing that this time Iron Man was ending would’ve been really difficult for him since he played the years for more than ten years and the role changed his life too!

So RDJ wasn’t just coming for filming a random scene but a final defining moment that required mental preparation. And it made it harder for him to reshoot the scene after he agreed to return for the same.

We are glad that Downey did come back to do it! Tony Stark’s legacy is staying for a long time to come!