Tony Stark nearly didn’t say anything to Thanos at the end of 'Avengers: Endgame'

WARNING: There are huge SPOILERS for Avengers: Endgame ahead.

So please don’t read on if you’ve somehow managed to miss the highest grossing movie of all time and still don’t know how it comes to an end.

Avengers: Endgame editor Jeff Ford has revealed that Robert Downey Jr actually uttered dozens of alternate versions of Tony Stark’s already iconic final words, “I am Iron Man,” during filming.

However, while Downey Jr provided numerous lines for directors Anthony and Joe Russo to work with, for the longest time Stark actually didn’t say anything at all to Thanos before he used the Infinity Gauntlet to defeat the villain.

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“In that version, Thanos didn’t say anything either,” Ford recently told Collider. “He had the gauntlet. He looked at him like, ‘I got you.’ Snapped. Looked. Couldn’t believe it. Turned to Tony. Tony raised his hand and snapped. It was beautiful. It worked really, really well.”

However, during the editing of Endgame, Ford and the Russos realised that they needed to wrap up Thanos’ thematic arc, which had revolved around his “sense of inevitability.”

In order for Endgame to have “thematic coherence, the trio decided that it needed to end with, “Thanos saying, ‘I told you. You cannot win,’ and for Tony to say, ‘But we can.’”

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“What we found as we were cutting the scene wasn’t so much that we needed a special last line for Robert, but that we needed a moment between Thanes and Tony. A moment that wasn’t some kind of transaction, but literally ‘this is how I want it to be’ and ‘this is how it is.”

They ultimately discovered Thanos’ line of, “I am inevitable,” after realising he actually says it three times in the movie.

But, despite Downey Jr’s numerous takes, which Ford said ranged from jokes and obscenities to “emotional, raw,” and sometimes even “insane” remarks, it wasn’t until deep into editing that Ford suggested he say, “I am Iron Man,” as a response, which then meant that the Russo brothers had to shot this moment during reshoots.