Avengers: Infinity Warwas a long film, featuring as it did more than 70 main characters, and a villain who had to establish a strong enough presence to be a convincing threat to the entire Marvel universe. As a result, a lot of the scenes that were planned for the movie ended up on the cutting room floor. John Staub, a concept artist who storyboarded ideas for the movie, posted the artwork for a deleted scene between Doctor Strange and Iron Man, which he describes as such.
“Scene from the #infinitywar film that was cut. #Ironman aboard the ship #drstrange is captured on. While searching for him dr strange astral projects to him bugging him why it’s taking him so long to find him, among other playful banter. Iron man’s suit was damaged so he couldn’t fly around at this point. This was a fun piece to do imagining the snappy dialogue between the two characters. Thanks for looking! Hope you guys are staying safe.”
The scene in question takes place early on in the movie.The Master of the Mystic Artshas been captured by Thano’s servant Ebony Maw, and is being taken aboard his spaceship to the planet Titan. Iron Man and Spider-Man sneak onto the ship, battle and defeat Maw, rescue Strange, and use the ship to bring the fight to Thanos on his home planet.
The deleted scene would have shown a more circuitous path to freeing Strange. In this version,Iron Mangets lost aboard the giant ship and is guided by the astral projection of Strange on his journey to finding the Doctor. This would have opened up the floor for a lot of banter between the two super-smart, super-snarky superheroes who both have a fondness for belittling the intelligence of those around them.
We get to see some of this banter in the film itself whenDoctor Strangebrings Tony Stark to his home to explain the threat posed by Thanos. In that scene also, there is friction between the two heroes from the start, with Tony dealing with the shock of discovering that wizards exist by making fun of Strange’s lair, and Strange growing increasingly impatient with the Avenger for appearing to not take the approaching threat seriously.
Perhaps it is because that scene exists that the filmmakers decided to remove the later scene between Strange and Stark aboard Maw’s ship. There is only so much time that can be allotted to banter when the fate of the universe is at stake.
As it is, the amount of conversation we got to see between Strange and Stark was successful in establishing the dynamic between them. Both are slightly suspicious of each other, but also recognize each other’s strengths, and are willing to set aside their egos in order to form a united front against the forces of Thanos. Sadly, the deleted scene probably cost fans the opportunity to hear Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr. exchange a ‘No shit, Sherlock.’ comment, something the internet had been clamoring for.
