Avengers: Endgame will feature a blond Tony Stark - could he come from a different timeline. The plot of Avengers: Endgame remains a closely guarded secret, with the Russo brothers insisting that it has “even more spoilers than the last one.” Kevin Feige went so far as to suggest that trailers and TV spots may be drawn from just the first 15-20 minutes of the film; it’s pretty clear at this stage that wasn’t the case, but nevertheless, it indicates just how seriously Marvel take the secrecy of Endgame.

So far, the focus has really been on the first act, in which the Avengers put together a last-ditch plan to steal the Infinity Stones from Thanos and use them to undo the snap. They may have lost a number of their most powerful assets - including the likes of Black Panther, Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Spider-Man - but they’ve been bolstered by the arrival of Captain Marvel. Given this is a three-hour blockbuster, though, it’s safe to say things won’t run smoothly for Earth’s surviving heroes. The rest of the plot is murky, although set photos strongly hint at some kind of time travel story.

It’s as yet unclear how the MCU will move from A to B, from an attack at Thanos’ “retirement home” to a time travel adventure that revisits the Battle of New York. Equally curious, though, is the mystery of Tony Stark’s changing hair-color - in both the set photos and recent trailers.

  • This Page: Avengers: Endgame’s Blond Tony Stark Explained Page 2: Could Blond Tony Be From An Alternate Timeline?

Tony Stark Is Blond For (Some Of) Avengers: Endgame

One of the most important pieces of evidence for time travel in Avengers: Endgame was a batch of set photos that clearly recreated the Battle of New York from The Avengers, with Chris Evans seen wearing his suit from the movie. The curious thing, though, was that Evans was joined both by Paul Rudd as Ant-Man - who wasn’t even a superhero back then - and Robert Downey Jr., made up as an older, blond-haired Tony Stark. The blond look was confirmed in a behind-the-scenes reel for Avengers: Infinity War, which included an on-set interview with Downey; dressed as Stark, he had his hair dyed blond and had a gray beard. Given Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame were filmed back-to-back, it strongly indicated that Tony Stark would adopt this look for part of Endgame.

Trailers for Avengers: Endgame have fleshed this out a little, showing two scenes that seem to feature a blond Tony Stark. The key shot has shown him shaking Steve Rogers’ hand and asking if he trusts him. The background is suggestive of the Battle of New York, and this particular shot has been adjusted by CGI, perhaps substituting Cap’s Avengers uniform so as to hide explicit evidence of time travel.

The second comes when the Avengers are wearing their new team uniforms; described as “Advanced Tech” suits, these outfits bear a close resemblance to Quantum Realm environmental suits from Ant-Man & the Wasp and are expected to be linked to the time travel plot. In shots of Tony Stark while Captain America gives a speech, Tony can be clearly seen with blonder hair.

What We Know About Blond Tony Stark’s Role In Avengers: Endgame

But why has Tony Stark gone blond and grown a beard? In Avengers: Infinity War, changes in the characters’ appearances were important but subtle plot points. Captain America and Black Widow, as the most prominent examples, had been on the run from the authorities for two years and Steve had abandoned his traditional clean-shaven look while Natasha had dyed her hair white. In the same way, if Tony Stark has changed his appearance so substantially for at least part of Avengers: Endgame, then there’s a story reason for it.

So far, all evidence indicates that Tony is blond around the portion of the film where the Avengers team don Advanced Tech suits and travel back to the past. His mission at this point involves going back to the Battle of New York with at least Ant-Man (and likely Hulk and Cap). As such, given Captain America is wearing his old outfit, it may simply be part of the time travel plot. However, it’s not like Tony is blending into the past with a new hair color he never had. Could it actually be an indication of something more?

Page 2 of 2: Could Blond Tony Be From An Alternate Timeline?

Avengers: Endgame May Actually Be Playing With Alternate Dimensions

While there’s strong evidence that Avengers: Endgame is a time travel film, there’s also a substantial amount that suggests there’s more to it than that. It’s important to note that, in the MCU, time travel is not something to be taken lightly. In Doctor Strange, the future Sorcerer Supreme experimented with the Time Stone, and was stopped by Wong and Mordo. They cautioned him that the fabric of reality is dangerously fragile, and that there could be consequences from meddling with time. “Temporal manipulations can create branches in time,” Mordo warned. “Unstable dimensional openings. Spacial paradoxes! Time loops! You want to get stuck reliving the same moment, over and over, forever, or never having existed at all?”

If the Avengers are indeed attempting to rewrite history, then they risk all these consequences, and potentially even more. The very first synopsis for Avengers: Endgame supported this, declaring that “our beloved heroes will truly understand how fragile this reality is.”

It’s possible that Avengers: Endgame sees reality fracture, with the Avengers interacting with versions of themselves from other times and dimensions. This would fit with several oddities that have been noted in the road to Avengers 4. Not just the blond-haired Tony Stark, but the fact Iron Man is donning the Mk 85 armor, when in Avengers: Infinity War he only wore the Mk 50, which was said to be his latest design Merchandise has also confirmed that War Machine is wearing his Mk 5 armor, when again in Avengers: Infinity War he was only in the Mk 3. Bigger, although of unclear relation, Marvel has reportedly cast Emma Fuhrmann as an older Cassie Lang, Ant-Man’s daughter.

In the comics, attempts to change the past have a history of causing dimensional instabilities, with the past, present and future bleeding into one another, and dimensional openings allowing heroes to meet alternate-reality versions of one another. The most notable example was in 2013’s Age of Ultron event, in which the entire space-time continuum fractured. Realities merged, portals opened between the dimensions, and incredibly that was revealed to be a best-case scenario.

Where Is the First Tony Stark In Avengers: Endgame?

The suggestion of different worlds puts a very different view on blond Tony Stark. Alternate dimension characters typically look identical to their original counterparts with one change, and blond Iron Man certainly fits the bill. As he’s around before the time jumping begins, he could have been plucked out on a preliminary mission, or be part of how the Quantum Realm ability is discovered. Either way, the mystery around Avengers: Endgame certainly leaves room for

Of course, that raises the question of where the Iron Man Prime is. The obvious solution is that Tony Stark actually dies while adrift in space as the trailers for Avengers: Endgame has teased, although that would mean subsequent shots of him reuniting with Pepper Potts were misleading; this would mean that this Tony is quite literally a replacement for the original.

That said, the injuries he sustained in Avengers: Infinity War - Thanos stabbed Iron Man and, although he sealed his injuries, the reality is that there’s sure to be severe internal bleeding - and time in space may simply leave him out of commission, at least from an action standpoint, and in need of a double. This would explain why Tony isn’t shown joining the Avengers team on the Benatar on their mission to hunt down the Mad Titan in the first act.

With that in mind, could well be that the original Tony Stark becomes the Avengers’ “Man in the Chair,” coordinating their efforts to somehow avert or undo the snap. That would certainly fit well with the Quantum Realm theory; it’s dangerous to explore the Quantum Realm, which is why Scott Lang needed Hank Pym, Janet and Hope on the outside to make sure he got out safely in the post-credits scene of Ant-Man & the Wasp. It would also explain Bruce Banner’s relative absence from much of the footage released so far (although a recent trailer did hint at Hulk), as the Science Bros. could work together.

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Blond Tony Stark is one of the most understated strange aspects of Avengers: Endgame. The answer may be as simple as a time jump, but just how striking it is feels like evidence of more. Of course, if the Avengers are going to be messing in time, one soon-to-be-leaving hero’s hair is going to be the least of the team’s worries.

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