The Russo Brothers had a lot of pressure when making Avengers: Endgame. They received most of that pressure from figuring out how exactly to end the story of some of the original Avengers, particularly Iron Man. According to the Russo Brothers, Jon Favreau, who directed Iron Man and Iron Man 2, did not want them to kill off Tony Stark in the climactic Avengers installment.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the Russo brothers detailed their conversations with Favreau while filming Avengers: Endgame. Apparently, Favreau was not only not in favor of killing Stark, but he insisted the Russos not kill him off because he believed doing so would completely devastate the viewers. Even if Favreau was right, the Russos evidently had no regrets in killing him off.
“Part of the pressure came from Jon Favreau, who called us up after he read the script and said to us, ‘Are you guys really going to kill Iron Man?’” Anthony recalled to Vanity Fair. Joe added that it was a tough conversation because Favreau strongly opposed the idea. “I remember pacing on the corner of a stage on the phone with Favreau trying to talk him off a ledge because he’s like, ‘You can’t do this. It’s going to devastate people, and you don’t want them, you know, walking out of the theater and into traffic.’” Anthony added that Favreau hadn't walked through the same process they had in killing off Stark because they would have had the same reaction in his shoes.
The Russos, of course, ignored Favreau's pleas and killed Stark anyway. Favreau was ultimately correct that Stark's death devastated Marvel's audience, but it serves as one of the noblest sacrifices in superhero media. It tied back to Stark's overall character arc. He had been told in the first Avengers movie that he was not the one to make the sacrifice play to help his team. Stark had proven that notion wrong before, but his making that ultimate sacrifice saved humanity and restored world balance. Of course, fans would have preferred that he stay alive, but his sacrifice completed his character arc. More importantly, not many characters in superhero media get to have their story end like that.
The Russos made the right call because Stark served as the backbone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Fans originally got invested because of how unique his character was as a superhero. It wasn't always smooth sailing with Stark's character, but he was someone who progressed throughout his time with Marvel. He was absolutely a different character when his story was over compared to when his story began. More importantly, all good things have to come to an end at some point. It was better to have viewers wanting more from him than becoming sick of him.
The one issue, though, is that Marvel is scrambling right now following Stark's death. Previously, having Stark and the other Avengers around gave the franchise a path to follow, but having him as well as some of the others gone too has begged the question of what Marvel do will next. considering the slate of films lined up for the studio's next two phases, though, it seems like there is plenty of big stuff that the MCU is working toward.
Avengers: Endgame can currently be streamed on Disney Plus.
Source: Vanity Fair|YouTube