Marvel Cinematic Universe fans have been voicing their displeasure at how Tony Stark has been treated throughout the first season of animated Disney Plus series What If…?, with creator and lead writer A.C. Bradley even addressing those concerns by comparing Iron Man to South Park‘s Kenny due to the regularity of his demise.
In fact, the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist was bumped off so often that a theory began making the rounds claiming that his death was one of those absolute points in time that caused Doctor Strange so much consternation in the fourth episode, but the creative team have heard the dissent and will be looking to rectify it in Season 2.
During yesterday’s finale when Gamora was recruited to join the Guardians of the Multiverse, the Watcher instantly dismissed Tony Stark, who was wearing bulky armor painted in symbols reminiscent of Thor: Ragnarok‘s Sakaar. In a new interview with Variety, Bradley confirmed that an entire episode revolving around Iron Man in space is in the works.
“That’s a definite yes. Basically what happened was we originally had an episode planned for earlier in the season that was a fun, light-hearted, living, breathing Tony Stark-centric episode with Gamora. However, due to the COVID pandemic, one of our animation houses was hit incredibly hard, and the episode needed to be pushed into Season 2, because it would not be finished in time. Given everything that we’ve all went through over the past two years, pushing an episode of television is absolutely nothing in comparison. And we understood. We hope fans enjoy the ride next year.”
Hopefully Season 2 gives Tony a much fairer shake of the stick, because audiences have clearly grown tired of watching him meet his end on an almost weekly basis. Robert Downey Jr. might not be involved, but Marvel’s What If…? still has plenty of Iron Man stories to tell.