Marvel Makes Controversial Iron Man Character Canon

Marvel is bringing a controversial Iron Man character into their comics universe. A lot of fans have a ton of feelings about Iron Man 3. It has to be in the top five of debated MCU movies. One of the most argued elements is Harley Keener, the young boy that Tony Stark helps in Rose Hill, Tennessee after he gets out of a tight scrape. Keener is the same kind of inventor that the Avenger was as a young man. So, it makes sense he’d make his way into the comics at some point. However, you probably wouldn’t be expecting him in a Spider-Man book. WEB of Spider-Man #1 chronicles the would be academy set up by Stark to encourage innovation. Peter Parker joins Moon Girl, A Wakandan genius named Onome, Keener, and Squirrel Girl in the Worldwide Engineering Brigade.

Ty Simpkins actually played Keener in the film. The actor actually talked to IGN about how he was recruited back for Endgame. The level of Marvel secrecy was paramount for the entire movie not to be spoiled. Luckily, the actor was up to the task.

“It was so cool coming back. When they gave me the call that I was going to do it, I was freaking out and screaming in the car,” Simpkins said. “I like to think that they [maintained contact] and that Tony was still taking care of him, because for Harley that bond was super close and he was his kind of his only father figure. So that’s what I was thinking about in the funeral scene, about how sad Harley would have been.”

Avengers: Endgame directors The Russo Brothers actually had a bit of a panic when it came time to shoot that funeral shot. They told CinemaBlend that Simpkins’ character was a definite concern.

“You guys will appreciate this,” Anthony began. “In order to do that shot, to amass that cast, we rehearsed that shot like crazy. We set up the camera moves with stand-ins. … Because they were all going to be in that shot, we spent days setting that shot up. Days! Okay? So we had everybody. We had the entire camera move figured out specifically. We had the time of day. We had everything perfect, right? So we get there on the day, we finally put the actors in the shot for the first time, right? [laughs] And we have this moment on set where he and I go into a panic attack over Ty, because we’re having this [question] over Ty.”

“Every time we screened it, people would ask us [who that kid was],” Joe revealed. “He’s three times taller than he was. So I think he has grown up so much that, you know, it’s a deep Easter egg. But I feel like that’s what’s compelling about the Marvel universe. By the way, there are quite a few Easter eggs in the movie people still haven’t identified.”

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