10 MCU Scenes You Didn't Realise Were Tricking You
4. An Injured RDJ Was Swapped Out For Digital Tony Stark - Iron Man 3
It's safe to say that Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark has found himself at the centre of some of the most impressive CGI wizardry the MCU has ever pumped into existence over the years, with this Iron Man being digitally thinned out in the opening stages of Endgame, impressively de-aged within his B.A.R.F. technology in Civil War, and routinely covered in computer-generated super-suits over the course of his time in the MCU sun.
However, arguably the most impressive and almost completely unnoticeable use of digital tinkering came in the form of Stark's appearance in the closing stages of the final solo Iron Man feature.
With RDJ being genuinely injured on set, damaging his ankle on the shoot, the VFX team were forced to think on their feet in order to ensure the film was released on time.
So, instead of pausing production entirely whilst the star recovered, an utterly convincing digital alternative was landed on when it came time to shoot the film's final scene, with the feature's VFX supervisor Chris Townsend eventually telling IGN:
"We were able to reconstruct RDJ as Tony Stark on set, with the help of [a] body double and the facial captures we'd collected afterwards,"
And it's safe to say the final product more than fooled folks into thinking the real deal Downey was along for this movie-ending ride.