Yahoo News Marvel boss explains why Iron Monger had to die
He may not have impressed Game of Thrones creator George RR Martin, but as one of the first major villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jeff Bridges' Iron Monger – aka Obadiah Stane – impressed a lot of fans.
So it was a shame he had to die then, especially considering Bridges has gone on record as saying that wasn't always the plan.
For those of you who still haven't got around to watching a film that came out nearly ten years ago, Obadiah Stane is Tony Stark's father's old business partner and Tony's mentor-turned-enemy, who later became the Iron Monger.
He was seemingly killed at the end of the film when he fell into an exploding arc reactor. (As you do.)
Related: Marvel's villains ranked – Ultron, Zemo, Loki and more
Speaking to Uproxx recently, Bridges reiterated comments he's made in the past that his character was supposed to survive the first film.
"No, in the script, the script that I hired onto, my character lives!" he said. "They open my suit up and I'm gone. But then when we got to shoot that scene, they didn't open my suit up!
"I said, 'Aren't you going to open my suit up?' They said, 'No'. I said, 'You're going to kill my guy?' And they say, 'Well, it's a comic book. You could come back. Who knows?' You know? But anyway."
So, why the change? Well Uproxx put the question to Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, and it seems that Marvel thought the world just wasn't ready for the villain they'd originally had planned.
"As you may recall, when he was hired, he was a secondary villain to the Mandarin," Feige replied. "And as we were prepping the movie we realised we didn't want to do the Mandarin in that movie.
"And when we took him out and made Obadiah the lead villain, Iron Man became what Iron Man became. But what was required is that Iron Monger [Obadiah Stane] had to go down into that arc reactor."
It took another five years before Mandarin was finally introduced to the MCU in 2013's Iron Man 3, and it looks like Bridges' character paid the price for that wait – but considering comic books have a habit of rewriting their own history, could the movies now follow suit and bring back Bridges?
"Well, that would be awesome to have him come back," Feige said at the prospect. "That would be great."
Well, here's hoping!
Robert Downey Jr will reprise his role as Iron Man in the massive superhero ensemble movie that Avengers: Infinity War War is shaping up to be when it's released next year.
In the meantime, next up for Marvel is Thor: Ragnarok (check out our review), which will be released on October 24 in the UK and November 3 in the US.
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