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Robert Downey Jr. Came Up with The ‘I love you 3,000’ line in ‘Avengers: Endgame.’
- Go To Brand: I Love You 3000
Warning: Major “Avengers: Endgame” spoilers ahead.
Seriously.
Stop now if you do not want the film completely spoiled.
SALT LAKE CITY — ”I love you 3,000.”
It’s one of the most memorable and heartbreaking lines in “Avengers: Endgame,” one that weighs heavier on the viewer the further the film proceeds.
Five years following the events of “Infinity War,” Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) are married and have a young daughter named Morgan. As Tony Stark tucks her in for the night, they exchange ‘I love yous,’ and that’s when we first hear the phrase, “I love you 3,000.”
Later in the film, after Tony Stark has sacrificed his life to save the planet, his family plays back a message he recorded for them in case he didn’t survive. It ends with the same line: “I love you 3,000.”
The moment is gutting and intimate for fans who have followed Stark’s journey throughout the film.
But as it turns out, the line is also personal for Robert Downey Jr.
“I love you 3,000” didn’t come from the film’s writers. It came from Downey Jr.’s home.
In an interview with Fandango, “Endgame” writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely explained.
“As much as we’d like to take credit for what is inevitably going to be one of the most memorable lines in MCU history, that is something that Robert and his children actually say to each other,” Markus revealed. “He brought it from real life onto the set.”
McFeely said that in the original script for the film, Tony Stark’s line to his daughter was supposed to read, “Love you tons. Love you tons.”
It was Downey Jr. who chose to share his family’s words of endearment with the Marvel family to make the moment more meaningful, he told Fandango.
The line has been shared and re-shared perhaps hundreds and thousands of times by Marvel fans on social media this week expressing their love for the film and Downey Jr.’s character.
- Go To Brand: I Love You 3000
