Robert Downey Jr. initially didn’t want to say his last big line in Endgame

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

*Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame*

Robert Downey Jr. has dished out several solid gems during his time as Tony Stark/Iron Man in the MCU, and perhaps his most notable was telling a crowd of reporters “I am Iron Man,” at the end of the first IRON MAN. This is why having that be Stark’s final line before making his heroic sacrifice to stop Thanos was such a perfect, emotional way to send off Downey at the end of AVENGERS: ENDGAME. In fact, it was such an emotional final moment that Downey wasn’t quite sure he was up to doing it in the first place.

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Directors Joe and Anthony Russo have been grinding the post-release press for ENDGAME recently to dish on all of the movie’s big plotlines and moments, of which there are many.  The idea for the specific line came when they were getting ready to do reshoots, and when they were speaking with ReelBlend the directors revealed how Downey was hesitant to say the big final line…until a famed producer stepped in.

Joe: It’s an interesting story. I had dinner with [Robert Downey Jr.] like two weeks before we were supposed to shoot it. And 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.

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Thank god he was talked into doing the line because not only is it the perfect clap back to Thanos, but it also brings the whole of the MCU into a greater sense of completion.  And it's spoken so masterfully in the moment, as Downey draws out the line and gives it that prolonged emotional heft. Turns out, this was not always the dialogue that was meant to be said, and it wasn’t they were going back and forth with other possibilities that the idea for the specific line was born.

Anthony: Originally when he snapped, he didn’t say, ‘I am Iron Man.’ The idea came up while we were in post production. Our editor, Jeff Ford…

Joe: We were sitting on our editorial, and we were reworking that sequence, and Thanos says ‘I am inevitable.’ And we were like, ‘We need a response to that. What is the response to that?’ And our editor said, ‘What about I am Iron Man?’ And we were like, ‘That’s it!’

Anthony: We must shoot that, we have to shoot that!

Much like the line “I love you 3000,” which Downey himself added, the inclusion of “I am Iron Man,” is yet another iconic Iron Man moment that was never there at the start of production, but once the idea was sparked made the movie even better. Also like that other emotional line, this final one spoken by Stark in his moment of sacrifice adds up to a perfect, heartbreaking final outing for the MCU’s first cinematic hero. Here come the fanboy tears!

Check out Avengers: Endgame (again) in theaters now.