Avengers: Endgame directors say Jon Favreau tried to talk them out of killing Iron Man

Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo have revealed that Jon Favreau, who directed Iron Man and Iron Man 2, argued against the decision to kill off Tony Stark. Iron Man ended up sacrificing himself to defeat Thanos and his army at the end of the Avengers movie. 

"Part of the pressure came from Jon Favreau, who called us up after he read the script, and said to us, 'Are you guys really going to kill Iron Man?'" Anthony told Vanity Fair. 

"I remember pacing on the corner of a stage on the phone with Favreau trying to talk him off a ledge, because he's like, 'You can't do this. It's going to devastate people, and you don't want them walking out of the theater and into traffic,'" Joe explained, adding: "We did it anyway." 

Anthony continues: "And to Jon's credit, he hadn't stepped through the process in the way that we had, so we would've had the same reaction if somebody had dropped that."

The Russos directed four Marvel films overall, and despite saying they could be tempted back to Marvel to direct a Secret Wars adaptation, they will not be returning to helm the newly-announced sixth Avengers film. The duo most recently directed the Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling-starring The Gray Man, which Netflix has revealed is getting a sequel and a spin-off. 

"It's ready-made for a franchise because it's based on a series of books," Joe told Total Film. "We always think that way, because we like long form storytelling. The majority of our careers has been in long form storytelling – all of our television work, all of our Marvel work." 

There are no release dates for The Gray Man follow-ups just yet, but the next Marvel movie to hit the big screen is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever this November 11. In the meantime, check out our roundup of all the best Netflix movies to stream now to fill out your watchlist.