Beauty School : Jon Favreau Tried to Stop Russo Brothers From Killing Iron Man

Avengers: Endgame featured a ton of emotional moments, none of which were most emotional than the death of Iron Man at the end of the film. According to the directing duo the Russo Brothers, though, there was some pushback on the idea of doing that.

Speaking in a new video for Vanity Fair where they break down some scenes from their films, the Russos spoke about trying to find the perfect way to end Robert Downey Jr.’s run as Iron Man when they were called by actor/director Jon Favreau, who tried to prevent them from killing off Iron Man.

“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 Russo said in the interview. Joe Russo then spoke up, confirming more of the story and recalling talking to Favreau on the phone to try and “talk him off the ledge.”

“He did. Yeah,” Joe Russo said. “And 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 gonna devastate people, and you don’t want them, you know, walking out of the theater and into traffic.’ We did it anyways.”

Of course, the final product does feature Iron Man sacrificing himself to save the world, and despite the hard-hitting moment, the Russos still believe that it was the perfect ending for the character, who essentially got to have two separate endings in the film due to the first half of the film where he was shown with a happy family.