Marvel fans have been longing to see Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man reappear in the MCU following his tragic death at the end of Avengers: Endgame, however, it almost happened in the recently released Black Widow film.
Before the film’s release, rumors began circulating that Tony Stark would show up as a cameo in the film, but as those who have seen it now, this wasn’t the case. During an interview with comicbook.com’s Phase Zero Podcast, the movie’s co-writer, Eric Pearson, revealed that there was an iteration of the script that included the billionaire philanthropist making an appearance.
“I feel bad for the person who asked me this the other day because I said ‘there was never any discussion,’ but I do remember now that one version of the script prior to me literally had written into it ‘The end moment of Civil War with Tony and Natasha,’ but it was old footage,” Pearson said. “It would have been ‘Hey audience, remember where we are, we’re going to key off of this moment of her.’ So it wouldn’t have been Robert Downey Jr, at least to the best of my knowledge, that was the only time that I was Tony Stark’s name in was just a flag-planted reminder of ‘Hey we’re right at the end of Civil War.”
Pearson also said that at the time the rumors began surfacing, he was confused whether or not the plan was to include Stark, even asking colleagues for confirmation that it wasn’t happening.
Sadly for Marvel fans, we may not see Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark in the MCU again, or at least not for a long while. Black Widow is in theaters now.