Robert Downey Jr. Reveals What He Originally Wanted to Say During Epic Avengers: Endgame Moment

In the snap heard around the world, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) dispatched of Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his armada with a simple enough sentence: "I am Iron Man." It's a line that came pretty late in the production process and per Downey himself, it wasn't his original choice for the epic line. As he opened the 2019 People's Choice Awards Sunday night, Downey admits he was hoping his character would be able to say "Oh snap!" as he dusted his foes away.

The line that ended up making the theatrical release was originally thought up by Endgame editor Jeffrey Ford. According to director Joe Russo, Ford came up with it on the cutting room floor and the production scrambled to reassemble so they could film the moment.

"Tony used to not say anything in that moment. And we were in the editing room going, 'He has to say something. This a character who has lived and died by quips,'" Joe said during a Q&A earlier this year.

"And we just couldn't, we tried a million different last lines. Thanos was saying, 'I am inevitable.' And our editor Jeff Ford, who's been with us all four movies and is an amazing storyteller, said, 'Why don't we just go full circle with it and say I am Iron Man?' And we're like, 'Get the cameras! We have to shoot this tomorrow.'"

Downey's co-star Tom Holland had previously revealed much of the final scene had to be improvised because Marvel Studios didn't want to put it into the script. "It was interesting because when we shot that scene with Robert there was no real script, at all," Holland says. "It was just Kevin Feige, the two Russo Brothers, myself, Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Don Cheadle. They kind of brought us to set, they kind of told us what was going to happen, or what they wanted to happen, and then we sort of just improvised if I can remember correctly," the actor said.

Avengers: Endgame is now available wherever movies are sold and will be available to stream on Disney+ when it launches November 12th.

Other upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Marvel Studios Disney+ series without release dates include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.

What was your favorite moment of Avengers: Endgame? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardt to chat all things MCU!