Back in Iron Man 3, the shrapnel near Tony Stark’s heart was finally removed. After such an operation there was no need for Iron Man to have his arc reactor anymore. Instead, the symbol was part of his suit, as seen most recently in Avengers Infinity War. However, in the latest Avengers Endgame footage from last night’s Super Bowl spot, it looks like he’s reconnected the arc reactor to his body.
Reddit user Drfapfap writes: “The new trailer didn’t ha[ve] much info, it was essentially just shots of characters looking determined with a Cap voiceover, but there was one shot that grabbed my attention.
“In Infinity War, when Tony suits up, we see that the nanoparticle housing is stored externa[ly] to his body – a point he makes clear with Pepper.
“But in this new shot, it looks like the housing unit is underneath an undershirt, not at all how we saw it prominently displayed in [Infinity War].
“My theory is that in some manner necessary to his survival, presumably to maintain his internal functions as food and water become scarce, Tony is forced to graft the nanotech to his body, leaving him with a permanently mounted arc reactor once again.”
BIG TIME JUMP IN AVENGERS ENDGAME?
The theorist added: “Ideally, this will also involve seeing him in some kind of hybridisation of the bleeding edge and extremis suits, but who knows what his final suit will look like.
“So yeah…nanotech in Tony’s body.”
With Avengers Endgame being Downey Jr’s final outing as Iron Man, it would certainly be fitting for him to finally be one with his suit.
But will Iron Man have to be sacrificed to save those who died in Thanos’ Snap?
A popular theory is that the dead characters are actually encased in the Soul Stone. Just imagine if the stone somehow finds its way back to Vormir, where Thanos had to sacrifice the one he loved for it: Gamora.
Now just how fitting would it be for Tony Stark to ask Steve Rogers – after all the conflict they’ve been through in Civil War – to push him, the one he loves, into the cavern below, sacrificing himself to resurrect those who perished in the Snap.
That would be the perfect end to Iron Man’s character arc, the perfect end to the first MCU saga and the perfect end to Avengers Endgame.
Avengers Endgame will be released in UK cinemas on April 25, 2019.