WARNING: SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS ENDGAME AHEAD. After 11 years as Iron Man across nine MCU movies, Downey Jr’s Tony Stark made the ultimate sacrifice and gave his life to defeat Thanos and save the universe. An outstanding ending for the character’s narrative arc, but it turns out the 54-year-old star had “mixed emotions” about Iron Man’s death going ahead. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Anthony Russo explained how they pitched the idea to him. Related articles Avengers Endgame: Marvel movie COULD nab Oscar nomination Avengers 4 Endgame MISTAKE in final battle revealed – Did you spot it? The director said: “We did pitch Robert his arc because he kicked off the entire MCU. “The Tony Stark arc is the longest and perhaps fullest in the MCU. “Once we decided we wanted this kind of ending for the character, we certainly wanted to make sure Robert was comfortable with it, just because of his enormous contribution to the MCU. “We did pitch it out. We went over to meet with him and we pitched it out to him.” YOU WON'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH ROBERT DOWNEY JR WILL MAKE FOR AVENGERS ENDGAME Avengers Endgame directors: ‘Robert Downey Jr had MIXED EMOTIONS about Iron Man’s ending’ (Image: MARVEL) Robert Downey Jr "totally accepted" Tony Stark's death in the end (Image: MARVEL) Anthony Russo continued: “A lot of the actors are not opinionated about what we do. “They like the fact that we are sort of in control of these stories and we are driving where they should go and we have a vision for where they should go and they trust in that. “I think Downey may have had mixed emotions about thinking about [where Tony Stark ends up in Endgame], but I think at the end of the day, he totally accepted it.” Meanwhile, the Avengers Endgame directors also revealed that Iron Man’s final scene almost didn’t feature his famous last words. Related articles Avengers Endgame: Is THIS character's return MORE than meets the eye? Avengers Endgame: What did THAT Captain America scene hint at? Robert Downey Jr made $75 million for Avengers Infinity War (Image: GETTY) Speaking at a screening in Washington DC this week, they said: “Tony used to not say anything in that moment. “And we were in the editing room going, ‘He has to say something. This a character who has lived and died by quips.’ And we just couldn’t, we tried a million different last lines.” But then Avengers Endgame’s editor realised that the final line of the first Iron Man movie was a perfect fit. Avengers Endgame is out now.All rights reserved for this news site express.co.uk and under his responsibility