https://screenrant.com/the-russos-are-wrong-iron-man-didnt-deserve-to-die-but-loki-did/
Avengers: Endgame directors defend their decision to kill Iron Man & Loki, but there are reasons why Tony Stark should have actually survived.
Iron Man died because Downey was by far the highest-paid actor in the cast, like he was getting something like $60 mil per film and maybe some of the gross! That's the story I heard, anyway, that when Downey signed for the first film and nobody expected it to do much, his contract guaranteed him bigger bucks for any sequels, if any were made. Nobody expected "Iron Man" to take off the way it did and generate a whole new industry... but when the dust settled there Downey was on the ground floor of a new megacorporation and making enough money to fund the government of a small country.
So yeah, the producers were going to find a way to kill Tony Stark in the big finale and cut the casting budget by about 80%, if they had to write killer tooth fairies into the script.
Nah, that only applies to TV shows like Star Trek TNG and Friends.
Movies operate on a whole 'nother level. No star earns "too much" if he can pull in a correspondingly large box office gross
At a certain point, as with Mission Impossible, the star becomes a producer and gets paid as a percentage of the revenue.
Matt Damon, to this day, jokes that he turned down Hollywood's biggest paycheck when he refused 10% of the gross as payment to star in Cameron's "Avatar" (which grossed nearly $3billion)
Tony Stark died because it was his time. The MCU couldn't keep following the same actors (who were themselves getting older) without potentially going stale. Killing off Iron Man showed that the MCU was willing to take huge risks, as it did when it first cast Downey despite his reputation.
They did it because it was awesome, in other words.
Killing off Loki showed us no one was safe.
Then they dusted major characters with upcoming movies already announced, a total mindfrack to those of us paying attention to such things.
Killing off Natasha made the final fight that much more painful and "real."
And ending with Tony's death was just ... awesome is how I remember it. What a great way to wind up his arc! And, for me, it was all wrapped up in Pepper's final line: "You can rest now."
That one line got me good; I honestly haven't teared up like that since Old Yeller, E.T. and Bing-Bong.
"Nah, that only applies to TV shows like Star Trek TNG and Friends."
No, it applies to movies, when there's enough money at stake.
Money had nothing to do with it.
shareDowney's extremely expensive contract was up, and that was that. There were, uh, billions of reasons they couldn't or wouldn't negotiate!
Movies are a for-profit business, and the moneymen feel absolutely free to tell the writers what they need to work into the script. So yes, the finale of "Endgame" was absolutely written according to which actors were leaving, whose contract was up, and who was staying. Evans was leaving and Downey's contract was up, so the two characters got great big spectacular finishes... because they weren't coming back for contractual reasons.
They wrote him out because his arc was complete. If the money guys were dictating the scripts, Iron Man would still be in the films. Look at any other major franchise. They milk it until the very last drop is dry.
Downey earned about $75 million to act in Endgame, which made $2.8 billion at the box office alone. Part of his salary came from profit-sharing, which is the route studios usually take in these situations. If the MCU wanted to tell more Iron Man stories, they'd not have killed him, because his presence in a film guarantees profits, no matter what he's paid.
The decision to kill Tony Stark had nothing to do with money at all. It was a combination of the MCU execs deciding that they could tell better stories without him and Downey aging out of the role.
They completed his arc because his contract was coming up! Why is that so hard for you to grasp!
That's how things work in Hollywood, it's really all about the money.
The story arc was timed to match his contract, but he wasn't killed off to avoid paying him to make another film.
Do the math. He was paid $20 million to star in Endgame, plus given a share of the profits that came out to about another $55 million. The film's net profit for Disney was in the neighborhood of $1 billion.
If it was a matter of money, they'd have kept him alive and made Iron Man 4. Iron Man 3 took in $1.2 billion at the box office. Coming off of Endgame, another Iron Man film would have been like printing money, even if they upped Downey's salary to $25 million + profits.
The decision to kill off Iron Man was 100% about telling a good story. If the money guys had their way we'd be lining up to see Downey in Iron Man 7 this summer.
NOTHING in Hollywood is 100% about telling a good story. Nothing. Zip, nada, diddly! Niente!
Movies are made to generate profits, they are a business, and we viewers are lucky if 50% of the story decisions are purely about telling a good story.
I'm fine with him dying. He died a hero. Plus as was said he was too high a price to continue making movies. Same reason why Cap is now old so that Chris Evans could also leave the MCU. We still might have a bit more time with Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Elizabeth Olsen.
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