MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios

by JoAnna Robinson

A couple of weeks before Downey was scheduled to film additional footage for Endgame—reshoots that would include him saying the final “I am Iron Man” line—Joe Russo had dinner with the actor and discovered that his star was reluctant to film Tony Stark’s dying moment again: “He was like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t really want to go back and get into that emotional state. It’ll take . . . it’s hard.’ And crazily enough, Joel Silver, the producer, was at the dinner. He’s an old buddy of Robert’s. And Joel jumps in and he’s like, ‘Robert, what are you talking about? That’s the greatest line I’ve ever heard! You gotta say this line! You have to do this!’ So thank God that Joel Silver was at dinner, because he helped us talk Robert into doing that line.” That scene, with Tony’s last words, ended up being the final shot of reshoots. It was filmed in a soundstage next door to the studio where, a decade earlier, Downey had auditioned to play Iron Man, gliding into the role like a kid on a bicycle going downhill. Kevin Feige watched the scene, thinking about how much his life, and Downey’s life, had changed since that moment.