Tony Stark’s relationship with his father Howard is a complicated one, and we’ve got a lot of exploration of the nuances of their dysfunctional father/son bond as the MCU has unfolded. Initially, though, Howard was portrayed as a pretty terrible parent who never showed his only son any love. Case in point: this newly unearthed deleted scene from 2008’s Iron Man reveals a tragic bit of backstory for Tony.
Twitter user @astcny shared a page from the movie’s original screenplay on social media, with the tweet going viral. In this cut sequence, Tony and a woman named Bethany (Christine Everhart with a different name?) inspect a miniature metropolis, called Stark City, that the genius inventor constructed as a kid. “Your father must’ve been impressed,” says Bethany. Tony admits Howard never saw it, which is ironic as it was intended as an apology. “For what?” asks Bethany. “Living,” says Tony. Ouch.
reminder that this was originally in the iron man script pic.twitter.com/U7YS9yO5ii
— may (@T6NYS) April 23, 2020
As you’d imagine, this has ripped fans’ hearts out and torn them into itty, bitty pieces, with the replies to the tweet including a lot of understandable hate for Howard. Others voiced confusion over how the loveable younger Howard (played by Dominic Cooper) in The First Avenger and Agent Carter turned into John Slattery’s strict father figure. Some are trying to see it from Howard’s point of view, though, given his Avengers: Endgame cameo which portrayed him in a more sympathetic light.
Either way, this deleted Iron Man scene is fascinating as it perfectly showcases Tony’s big personal hang-up. As this scene makes clear, everything Tony did was in a bid to impress his dad, but Howard never showed him much outward affection. At least, just before he sacrificed his own life in Endgame, he was able to meet his father one last time and finally learn that he did love him.
OK, I’ve got something in my eye…