The more of a beating he takes the more it’s obvious that Iron Man shouldn’t be able to get back up and keep going, and at this. The end is what cements the thing, to actually sew it together and bring it to a crescendo, and yeah, take people off the board, finish their arcs. At this point Iron Man is better as a mentor than a hero. McFeely’s co-writer, Christopher Markus, told Vanity Fair just how important it is for stories, even ones about superheroes, to reach their natural conclusions. If Marvel doesn’t think long-term, it risks alienating the very audience that made the MCU work in the first place. The studio is already on the verge of releasing four films each year starting in 2021. Truly, even with Disney behind it, Marvel only has so many resources to go around. But they decided, “No, we’re going to take chances on all these other things.” To put a flag in the ground and say, “We’re going to end something and take characters off the table,” is, I think, kind of daring, but selfishly it was really great for us. Whether you like all of the 24 movies or not, the capital that Marvel built up allowed them to do things like make a movie starring a raccoon and a tree, right? You would’ve already had Iron Man 4 if it was any other studio. But, in an interview with Vanity Fair, Avengers: Endgame co-writer Stephen McFeely said he thinks Marvel made a wiser call. Marvel Studios could have opted to continue wringing billion-dollar grosses out of Iron Man.

Why ‘Iron Man 4’ would have been a bad ideaĪfter all, by the time Downey bid farewell to the role, Tony Stark had completed his own trilogy, kicked off Tom Holland’s Spider-Man series, and rounded out his own Avengers arc.

Iron man 4