3 Deleted Iron Man Scenes That Would Have Changed Everything

October 8, 2025, 12:00pm

Tony Stark was at the core of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for eleven years as the armored superhero Iron Man, but his story and the fate of the MCU as a whole would have changed significantly if these deleted scenes had been kept. Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark became Marvel Studios’ first on-screen hero back in 2008, marking the start of what would become the most successful movie franchise, let alone one focused on comic book heroes, in history. Tony Stark’s absence from the MCU has been felt since 2019, but Downey Jr. will soon be returning.

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Before Robert Downey Jr. rejoins the MCU – this time as Victor Von Doom’s Doctor Doom instead of his armored hero – it’s worth celebrating his career as Iron Man even more. Downey Jr. appeared in ten Infinity Saga movies as Tony Stark, most of which have deleted scenes that would have altered how we look at Iron Man or changed his place in the franchise altogether. The MCU would be a very different place if these three deleted scenes had been kept in their respective movies.

Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark in Iron Man 1

Iron Man’s Unused Alternate Post-Credits Scene

It’s a well known fact that the original Iron Man movie from 2008 – the MCU’s first instalment – almost ended with a very different and more game-changing post-credits scene. In the theatrical release, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) approaches Tony Stark and introduces him to a bigger world of heroes. In this unused alternate ending, however, Fury lamented that he now had to deal with Stark on top of “gamma accidents,” “radioactive bug bites,” and “assorted mutants.”

These mentions would have teased the likes of the Hulk, Spider-Man, and the X-Men existing in the MCU prior to Iron Man. Marvel Studios was unable to include this scene as these characters’ film rights resided with other studios. Universal Pictures owned the Hulk – The Incredible Hulk in 2008 was a joint venture – while Sony Pictures owned Spider-Man and 20th Century Fox owned the X-Men. In the 17 years since Iron Man, all these heroes have now appeared in the MCU, fulfilling Fury’s dream, but Iron Man almost changed the shape of the MCU at the franchise’s very beginning.

Discovering His New Element Almost Teased More MCU Heroes

Iron Man 2, released in 2010, saw Tony Stark discover a new element that proved capable of powering his arc reactor and stopped his palladium poisoning. In a deleted scene from the Phase 2 movie, however, Stark would have asked his artificial intelligence JARVIS to collect information from the Oracle grid on Project PEGASUS, Project EXODUS, and Project GOLIATH to help him create his element. Similarly to Fury’s appearance in Iron Man, this scene would have teased as-yet-unseen heroes in the MCU.

Tony Stark Missed A Lamaze Class in Captain America: Civil War

Tony Stark and Pepper Potts’ (Gwyneth Paltrow) relationship developed significantly throughout the Infinity Saga. We saw them start their relationship in Iron Man 2, briefly break up in Captain America: Civil War, become engaged in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and have a child in Avengers: Endgame. This timeline was almost sped up, however, as a deleted scene from Civil War in 2016 saw Stark off-handedly mention to Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) that he had missed his lamaze class.

This would have all but confirmed that Pepper Potts was originally pregnant in an early draft of Captain America: Civil War. This would have avoided the break Stark and Potts took during this time, and would have seen Morgan Stark (Lexi Rabe) be born years before she was in the actual MCU timeline. Another poignant Morgan Stark scene was also deleted from Avengers: Endgame, where Stark would have met his teenage daughter (Katherine Langford) in the Soul World after snapping his fingers, but this would have been negated had Morgan been born in 2016 rather than half a decade later.

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