While Marvel’s What If…? Felt like an anthology series, for the most part, there were a few consistent factors between episodes. One of these which didn’t sit well with all fans was the recurrence of Iron Man meeting his end in every appearance the character made in the series.
Whether it was being killed by Hank Pym in episode 3, joining many other avengers becoming prey for the zombie invasion in episode 5, being betrayed and then killed by Killmonger during episode 6, or falling to Ultron in episode 8, every time Tony Stark appeared it did not end well for the iconic character, and according to one of the shows writers fans voiced their grievances.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Marvel’s What If…? Head writer A.C. Bradley joked about killing Stark off during the series first season, hinting that he’d received hate from fans for the decision.
“Yeah, due to the pandemic one of our core production houses was hit very hard, and could not finish animation on one of our episodes that was supposed to air earlier in the season. That episode featured Tony and Gamora. It was a lighter episode! We didn’t murder Tony horrifically in this one, I promise! Big spoiler. [Laughs] But I’m getting hate mail.”
via Entertainment Weekly
While we didn’t get to see this episode where Stark would have seemingly survived to see the credits roll, perhaps in season two we’ll get to something similar. Marvel’s What If…? Has come to a close and as of right now there isn’t a firm date on when we’ll be getting new episodes.