Did Tony Stark orchestrate Natasha's sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame? Details explored in-depth

Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) had a dark past, but she had come along just fine, finding a family in the original Avengers, and that family expanded with time. Unfortunately, she wasn't there during the infamous Portals scene of Avengers: Endgame, where basically the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe stood. It was the final showdown that concluded the Infinity Saga.

What transpired was that she made a sacrifice on Vormir, a planet holding the Soul Stone. To obtain the stone, one must give a soul in return, a soul for a soul. After an intense and suspenseful fight, the audience was left wondering, 'who's going to die?'

Will that be Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton? Or Romanoff? At first, it seems like it could be Clint, or Romanoff, but it’s ultimately Clint who survives. After they'd shown the very best of their skills in there, we lost Natasha to Vormir forever. And then the Disney thing happened. Some fans theorize that this sacrifice could have been influenced by Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr.

How? You ask? Well, keep on reading.

Disclaimer: This article contains the author's opinion.

Only Tony and Nebula knew the truth about Vormir in Avengers: Endgame

Karen Gillan as Nebula and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame. (Image via Marvel Entertainment)

When everyone's making a plan to reverse The Blip, caused by Thanos (Josh Brolin), which resulted in the death of half the population in the universe, only two people in the room knew about Vormir. Those two were Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Tony. Now, at this point in Avengers: Endgame, they didn't know how to get the Soul Stone yet.

However, they certainly had deduced what they might have to do in order to get the stone. Tony is already a genius, and then Nebula tells everyone that Thanos returned from the planet with the Soul Stone and not her sister Gamora (Zoe Saldaña).

From this information, it is easy for a man like Tony to deduce what they need to do next. And I feel it is from that moment onwards that he started planning who they need to send to Vormir. Of course, he would never send Rhodes (Don Cheadle) to die, they are best friends.

So, who then? Two members with a complicated past would be a good idea. Makes sense. And he knew that she knew that Clint has a family, so the chances of her sacrifice were pretty much good.

But if you want to look from the film's production perspective, Hawkeye was already in development in April 2019. That provides another explanation if you don't want to think that Tony orchestrated all of that in Avengers: Endgame.

Tony Stark's final act

Tony Stark died in Avengers: Endgame. (Image via Marvel Entertainment)

Here's where this Avengers: Endgame theory takes a darker turn. Tony Stark didn't sacrifice himself. He killed himself. All that "I am Iron Man" still remains intact where he won. The man never really liked to lose.

It’s amusing to imagine that if he reunited with Natasha in the afterlife, she might have knocked him out just like she did with Happy Hogan in that boxing ring in Iron Man 2.