When Peter Parker (Tom Holland) was dusted at the end of Avengers: Infinity War it was heartbreaking, but no one was more hurt than Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), so when the pair was finally reunited in Avengers: Endgame it was a pretty big deal.
But it turns out that their reunion was originally meant to go down very differently – and it would have made the scene far less emotional.
In the movie, Parker’s ‘death’ is the whole reason Stark decides to risk his life in the mission to bring back those who were dusted.
Jeff Ford, the movie’s editor, has revealed the original reunion scene was going to be more funny than emotional.
In an interview with /Film, Ford revealed the scene was shot before Infinity War had even hit theatres so they didn’t realise how big of an emotional impact Parker’s death would have on audiences.
He said, “The first time we shot it, Peter and Tony reunite and Pepper’s nearby, and Tony goes, ‘Uh, Peter, do you know Pepper?’ ‘Nice to meet you!’ It’s one of those crazy meet-cutes in the middle of a fight. He hugs him and they have this thing, but it felt very incidental, like they ran into each other at an airport or something.
“We watched it, and they were both great in the scene, but it was like a comedy scene, so it had this schtick quality to it. By the way, we did not yet know how powerful Peter disappearing was (in Infinity War) when we shot that first version. We had shot it, I think, but we hadn’t tested it, we hadn’t lived with it and actually done the (effect) of (him) going away, so when the audience had that reaction, we’re like, this reunion is different now. It’s a different thing.”
He added, “I think we did five or six takes between the two, but those guys, their chemistry is so great and they’re so at ease with each other in that way, it was kind of effortless. That came together really easily.
“We did one loop in there, though, to explain something: Peter has a line about Doctor Strange ‘and then I got all dusty,’ that line was something we added because a couple people were confused about where he came from. So we thought let’s put a fine point on that, so we did that one adjustment. But for the most part, it was pretty easy to cut that.”
The MCU movies often cut tension with humour, especially with Stark, but in this scene we’re glad they didn’t go that way and went for the more emotional reunion.
In the scene we now have, Peter saves Tony and begin frantically recounting what had just happened to him. Tony uncharacteristically interrupts him with a hug. “What are you doing?” Peter says. “Oh, this is nice.”
It can’t get any better than that.