Avengers: Endgame Theory:
Robert Downey Jr. never would’ve thought the superhero role he took upon himself a decade ago would spawn 20 sequels including one of the industry’s biggest culmination of events ever produced. Infinity War marked the entry of Thanos (Hands down the only long-running effective villain in Marvel comics) into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The advent of the events of Infinity War marked the paradigm shift that Marvel had been looking for. It is pertinent to mention here that none of this would exist if not for the portrayal of Iron Man by Robert Downey Jr. In the words of the master Stan Lee himself, “This man was born to play Iron Man”.
The legacy of Iron Man is not one that is easily ignored, especially not in the comic book industry. We have seen the hero take on so many hardships throughout the years that his life has become synonymous with war. The ideal scenario for Tony’s Iron Man would now be to win over Thanos and peacefully retire handing over the protection of the earth to the next generation of heroes. But is all this really that simple? I sincerely doubt it.
The acts of Tony Stark have led us to this moment in time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where half the population of the universe has been wiped out by a maniac in his tyrannical rage. The idea of this madman was to ‘correct’ the course of life itself but is his approach in fact correct? We do not know.
What we do know, however, is the fact that the entirety of Marvel’s roster has been defeated by this man and he must now be challenged by the residual heroes. It seems highly likely that one or all Avengers will eventually perish while collecting the infinity stones in Avengers: Endgame and the baton of responsibility will be carried on by the next generation of heroes like Black Panther and Spider-Man.
But if this is true then the current Avengers need to perish and if that is the case then the clip of Tony recording the last message for Pepper Potts just might be how Avengers: Endgame draws a curtain on the climax of the fight between the Avengers and the Mad Titan. The idea here is that Tony will fight the good fight for as long as he can and then perish at the hands of deep space travel in a broken spaceship trying to get home. That is one version.
The other version is that Tony Stark tries to get home at the start of Avengers: Endgame to regroup with his allies and hopefully amass enough force to fight the Mad Titan but is assaulted by the Chitauri whilst trying to escape and ends up in a damaged ship, with no hope of rescue, adrift in space.
In either of the scenarios, it seems rather likely that Tony will perish in space or at least be very close to death. The recording he performs in what he believes to be his last moments are particularly interesting. If you carefully look at the footage presented to us in the trailer, you can see that the helmet is not only recording Stark but completely scanning the hero.
In this scenario, it is more than likely that Tony knows he is going to die and he is actually trying to upload his persona to the Iron Man suit interface. This theory may be a longshot but it would make a lot of sense if Marvel Cinematic Universe has to give a proper send off to Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark aka Iron Man.
The Stark AI, as it may come to be known as come Phase 4, might be the foundation of Robert’s involvement in Phase 4 after the official death of Tony Stark. It just might be a very clever way to shift the focus from Iron Man as the protagonist of the entire series to the new generation yet still keeping him involved in a restricted role and even allow him to actively engage in combat as an AI. If this theory holds any merit then we may yet see Iron Man survive his natural life in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.
