Avengers: Endgame director Joe Russo reveals last-minute change to iconic scene

Warning: the story below contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.

A last-minute addition changed an iconic scene in Avengers: Endgame, co-director Joe Russo has revealed.

The filmmaker, who directed Endgame with his brother Anthony, was asked during a recent Talks at Google session what elements of the movie he would change if he could go back in time.

In response, he explained that the process of making a movie such as Endgame is so “iterative” (and relies on “almost unlimited” resources) that “if we regret anything by the end of it, we did not do our jobs correctly”.

As an example, Russo brought up an iconic scene at the end of Endgame, in which Tony Stark, preparing to snap his fingers to defeat Thanos – thus ending his own life – pronounces the sentence: “I am Iron Man.”

The moment has resonated with fans, especially because it’s a throwback to the first Iron Man movie (dating back to 2008), in which Robert Downey Jr’s character reveals his superheroic identity in front of a crowd of journalists.

“The famous ‘I am Iron Man’ line was literally shot two months before this film was in theatres,” Russo said.

“It’s an exceedingly iterative process and its only limits are how much sleep you need to get at some point”.

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He then clarified that he and his brother don’t regret anything about the film (which has surpassed Avatar as the top box office movie ever) and are “very happy” with how it turned out.