20 Things You Didn’t Know About Iron Man 2
1. Whiplash Died More Definitively In The Original Ending
Though we don't actually see Whiplash die at the end of the movie, it's heavily implied that he perished in his final attack, self-destructing his own armoured suit along with all the Hammer drones.
But of course, the golden rule of superhero movies is that nobody's dead unless we actually see a body - and even then maybe not.
This was an intentional decision by Favreau, who wanted to keep Vanko's fate ever-so-slightly ambiguous in case they decided to bring the character back in the future.
The original ending actually saw Whiplash survive the explosion and make one final attempt to kill Tony and Pepper before being killed by Rhodey.
Between Rourke's disappointment with how he was portrayed, the sheer chasm of time that's passed since Iron Man 2, and Tony Stark dying in Avengers: Endgame, it's pretty safe to declare that Whiplash isn't coming back.