Russo, along with his brother Anthony, helped put Marvel in the history books once more when Avengers Endgame overtook Avatar as the highest-grossing movie of all time.
It successfully brought the Infinity Saga of Marvel films to a close – and that meant saying goodbye to long-term favourites.
Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, didn’t survive until the end credits; bringing his complicated character arc full circle.
But fans were upset when a quote attributed to Russo started doing the rounds, making him sound very dismissive of the now-iconic superhero.
“I’ll be honest. When I heard Tony Stark say ‘billionaire, playboy, philanthropist’ in the first Avengers, I decided right then that he would be the big casualty of Endgame,” the quote reads.
“I know he is loved by many. But he is not loved by me. He needs to go.”
Russo quietened the raging fanbase by pointing out that the quote is entirely made up.
“To set the record straight, this quote is completely fake,” he tweeted.
“It’s an obvious falsehood, and utterly ridiculous,”
He joked: “I actually wanted Tony dead in Civil War… #killtonystark #thetruthisout @RobertDowneyJr.”
In actual fact, the directors and writers have said many times that their intentions when killing off Stark were to bring his story to a close in a meaningful way.
“Everyone knew this was going to be the end of Tony Stark,” Stephen McFeely previously told the New York Times.
“The watchword was, end this chapter, and he started the chapter.”
Christopher Markus added: “In a way, he has been the mirror of Steve Rogers the entire time. Steve is moving toward some sort of enlightened self-interest, and Tony’s moving to selflessness. They both get to their endpoints.”
The latter added that “we had the opportunity to give him the perfect retirement life, within the movie. Are he and Pepper going to get together? Yes. They got married, they had a kid, it was great.
“It’s a good death. It doesn’t feel like a tragedy. It feels like a heroic, finished life.”