3 Deleted Iron Man Scenes That Would Have Changed Everything

by

For eleven years, Tony Stark, as Iron Man, was central to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, some deleted scenes, if included, could have drastically altered his story and the future of the MCU. Robert Downey Jr. first portrayed Tony Stark in 2008, launching the most successful superhero movie franchise of all time. While his absence has been noticeable since 2019, Robert Downey Jr. is scheduled to reprise the role soon.

As a huge Marvel fan, I’m really excited about Robert Downey Jr. potentially joining the MCU as Doctor Doom, but it’s got me thinking about just how iconic his run as Iron Man was. He was Tony Stark in ten films across the Infinity Saga, and it’s fascinating to learn that a lot of those movies had deleted scenes that could have *really* changed things for his character – and the whole franchise! Apparently, there are three scenes in particular that, if they’d stayed in, would have given us a very different Iron Man and a very different MCU. It’s wild to think about how a few extra moments of footage could have altered everything!

Iron Man’s Unused Alternate Post-Credits Scene

Most fans know the first *Iron Man* movie, released in 2008 and kicking off the Marvel Cinematic Universe, almost had a different ending scene. The version we saw showed Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) telling Tony Stark about a larger world of heroes. But an unused alternate ending had Fury complaining that he now had to worry about Tony Stark *in addition* to other problems like “gamma accidents,” “radioactive bug bites,” and “assorted mutants.”

Early drafts of *Iron Man* hinted at the existence of characters like the Hulk, Spider-Man, and the X-Men within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even before *Iron Man* was released. However, Marvel Studios couldn’t include these references because the rights to those characters were owned by other companies. Universal Pictures had the rights to the Hulk, Sony Pictures owned Spider-Man, and 20th Century Fox controlled the X-Men. Over the past 17 years, all these heroes have finally joined the MCU, making that early vision a reality. It’s remarkable how close *Iron Man* came to dramatically altering the MCU’s path right from the start.

Discovering His New Element Almost Teased More MCU Heroes

Released in 2010, *Iron Man 2* showed Tony Stark finding a new element to power his arc reactor and cure his poisoning. A scene that didn’t make the final cut would have had Stark using his AI, JARVIS, to gather information on secret projects – PEGASUS, EXODUS, and GOLIATH – to help him create this element. Much like Nick Fury’s appearance in the first *Iron Man* film, this scene was intended to hint at future heroes within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Within the Marvel universe, several projects play key roles in the stories of various heroes. Project PEGASUS is connected to both Mar-Vell and Captain Marvel, as seen in the comics and the 2019 film. Project GOLIATH is the superhero name used by Bill Foster in *Ant-Man and the Wasp*, and has been associated with other heroes in the comics as well. While Project EXODUS hasn’t appeared in Marvel Cinematic Universe films yet, in the comics it was a secret SHIELD research program focused on mutants. This hints that films like *Iron Man 2* and even the original *Iron Man* subtly foreshadowed the introduction of the X-Men years before they officially joined the MCU.

Tony Stark Missed A Lamaze Class in Captain America: Civil War

Throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity Saga, the relationship between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts evolved considerably. They began dating in *Iron Man 2*, experienced a temporary split in *Captain America: Civil War*, got engaged in *Spider-Man: Homecoming*, and eventually started a family in *Avengers: Endgame*. Interestingly, a deleted scene from *Civil War* revealed an earlier stage in their relationship – Tony casually mentioning to Steve Rogers that he’d missed a Lamaze class, suggesting they were preparing for a child much sooner than shown in the final cut.

An early version of *Captain America: Civil War* almost showed Pepper Potts as pregnant, which would have changed the storyline. This would have prevented the temporary separation of Tony and Pepper Stark, and their daughter Morgan (Lexi Rabe) would have been born much earlier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A touching scene featuring a teenage Morgan Stark (Katherine Langford) meeting her father in the Soul World was cut from *Avengers: Endgame*, and that moment wouldn’t have had the same impact if Morgan had been born in 2016 instead of several years later.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

https://comicbook.com/movies/news/fantastic-four-first-steps-deleted-opening-scene-john-malkovich-red-ghost-cut-villain/embed/#

Read More

2025-10-08 19:14