Iron Man Almost Dropped An F-Bomb In Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame held several memorable moments, but none hit as hard as when Iron Man stole the stones away from Thanos and used them to send him and his armies to the afterlife, with a defiant “I am Iron Man” as the cherry on top. That line was instantly quoted amongst fans, but writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus revealed in a new interview that it wasn’t always so clean.

Markus and McFeely spoke to the Empire Film Podcast all about Endgame, and at one point were asked about the I am Iron Man line, which didn’t really form until later in the process. “It was actually relatively late in the game,” Markus said. “In some ways, it seemed juvenile, but it seems awesome.”

“That’s the thing,” McFeely said. “Sometimes we got to the point of ‘is this correct?’ Is this fan service? What is this? Is it completing an arc?’”

“But it’s the fulfillment of his character,” Markus added.

There were plenty of alternative takes on the line during filming though, as McFeely added “I think at one point he said f*** you at one point (laughs). Didn’t he say f*** off?”

“He may have said…you do a lot of takes,” Markus said.

“It was like can we really end all this on a complete swear,” McFeely said, with Markus adding “On a kiss my ass Thanos”.

“And that one just seemed to bring it all back around to the beginning, and to be why he did it, because he’s a hero, finally,” Markus said.

Having Tony take the Stones was a part of the plan from early on. “From the beginning and also once it sort of…once the way that his nano suit was gonna work became clear, there was a more fun way for him to get those things than to just grab the Gauntlet and really quickly put it on but to sneak the jewels off onto his own thing,” Markus said.

“I think that was Girardo and visual, the previs guys came up with that kind of thing, and we went ‘oh, that’s delightful,’” McFeely said. “And by establishing the nano, it’s using…so that the nano stuff isn’t just because it’s cool. You know these two movies have used it and now it has a payoff.”

They definitely managed to create some tension and surprise with that final sequence, and it was quite the sendoff for the Marvel hero who kickstarted the MCU.

Avengers: Endgame is in theaters now.