Beware the wrath of the MCU fan base, mostly because they’re relentless on social media and nowhere else, but you get the point. NFL star LeSean McCoy certainly did after he let it slip that Iron Man died near the end of Avengers: Endgame, and somehow he didn’t even suspect that people would react in the manner they did upon his tweet claiming RIP Tony Stark. Let’s put it this way, people were upset when Han Solo was killed by his own son in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and were righteously ticked off when others decided to spoil it the day before the big opening, but when anyone, even an NFL star, decides to ruin the ending for everyone just because he felt the need to post something before the movie was available to the general public, they’re bound to receive a serious amount of backlash. No one, not Kevin Burwick of MovieWeb or myself could possibly say just how angry MCU fans likely were at that moment since the details of Endgame were supposed to be a well-kept secret that would only be revealed once enough people had seen it. It’s true that a lot of people who weren’t big fans didn’t care and were likely rolling their eyes at the reaction, but in a way it was almost like ruining Christmas by opening someone’s present and telling them what to expect via social media. McCoy didn’t expect the barrage that came his way soon after obviously and it shows, but he at least had the decency to feel sorry about it later.
There were only a few ways to temper this reaction to be realistic since Iron Man basically kicked off the MCU no matter that Captain America’s story line, and even Hank Pym’s, predated his own, but at the moment of McCoy’s reveal a lot of people weren’t looking at it that way. The reality though is that Robert Downey Jr. had been looking at the possibility of stepping away from the MCU for a while at that point as the part of Iron Man was due to be put away and the spot on the roster retired to make way for new talent to come in. Mark Daniell of the Toronto Sun had more to say on this matter. With the continued expansion of the Marvel universe on the big screen and even on the small screen it was time to develop new stories, bring in new heroes, and that meant the passing or retirement of the older guys that have helped to build the franchise into what it is now. Names such as Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Falcon, Winter Soldier, and many more are still around, but they’ll become the veterans at one point since Captain Marvel is still considered a bit of a newbie to the MCU despite how far back her own timeline goes.
For a while a lot of details about Endgame were such a well-kept secret that it wasn’t necessarily ‘if’ a vital detail of the movie was going to get out, but ‘when’ since people talk, they blab over social media, and there’s not a lot that can be done about it. All a person can really do is ignore it, but when the news is about a highly anticipated movie it’s a little more difficult, especially for those that are excited to see the movie and want to know what happens. It’s kind of doubtful that McCoy is the only one that said anything and possibly ‘ruined it’ for everyone else, but seeing as how he’s a high profile kind of guy it’s very possible that people decided that it must be his fault for sharing the secret of Tony’s death at the end of the movie. At this point most people have gotten over it so in truth the subject isn’t quite as sensitive as it was, but all the same it’s kind of amusing now to think that McCoy had no idea what was going to happen when he let the secret drop. MCU fans are just as about a fiercely loyal and even rabid when it comes to their favorite movies, and Endgame was the most anticipated of the bunch. Learning of Stark’s death was obviously a big hit since in the comics death is kind of a revolving door, but in the movies it’s bound to be at least a little more permanent since despite movie magic the act of bringing someone back from the dead is going to start giving off the feel of a bad soap opera, and as painful as Stark’s death was for many people, the hope is that it will be left as it is. No resurrection, no miraculous save to bring back a favored character, just let them pass finally. Gabrielle Geisinger of the Express might agree. People want new heroes, right? Sometimes the old heroes have to pass on to make that happen. But in the future, hopefully people will learn from McCoy’s unfortunate mistake.
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