Endgame Theory: Pepper’s Rescue Suit Is Based On Her Original Iron Man Costume

Pepper Potts’ Rescue armor from Avengers: Endgame referenced her gala dress in Iron Man. Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 first teased the possibility of Pepper eventually having her own armor in 2013 when she briefly donned one of Tony’s suits following the attack on their Malibu home. But that promise didn’t come to fruition until six years later when she finally got to have her own battle costume thanks to her husband.

Rumors of Paltrow wearing her own version of the Iron Man armor began in late 2017 when the actress shared a video on her social media where she was wearing a mo-cap suit similar to what Downey and other actors who wear CGI costumes usually don. Several months later, art for the Avengers 4 Hero Vision toy line revealed a purple-and-white version of an Iron Man suit. And not long after that, another image of Paltrow, this time, wearing the chest plate for the suit, surfaced online reinforcing speculations.

Lo and behold, during Avengers: Endgame‘s final battle, Pepper emerged wearing the purple-and-gold suit to help her husband and the Avengers take down Thanos and his army. Considering that Tony has worked on his other Avengers teammates’ gears for years aside from his own, it makes sense for Pepper to get a suit from her husband. And it turns out, Tony may have gone a trip down memory lane while making the Rescue armor.

Pepper’s Rescue suit was teased earlier in Avengers: Endgame when Tony caught their daughter, Morgan Stark, playing with it after finding it in the garage. The revealed that, aside from the practical applications of the Rescue armor, there’s also a sentimental purpose for it: it’s an anniversary present for Pepper (although Tony expects she never wears it). While Tony doesn’t always come across as nostalgic, he’s proven that he can be wistful in his own weird way (case in point: he lounged in his father’s leopard robe in Iron Man 2).

Given this, it’s distinctly possible he designed his wife’s armor based on the purple-bluish gown she wore during Iron Man‘s charity gala where they shared a romantic dance and almost kissed in the balcony. This is an important moment for the couple as it marks when they first began to admit their feelings for each other (although, because Tony was pulled away to deal with the Ten Rings, they didn’t officially get together until Iron Man 2). It’s possible Tony designed Rescue inspired by that dress to call back to that moment. This would add to the long list of Iron Man Easter eggs in Endgame like the mention of cheeseburger and Stark’s “I am Iron Man” line.

Of course, it’s possible that this was just a mere coincidence. After all, a version of the Rescue armor from the comic books is also purple-and-gold, as well as in Iron Man Armored Adventures, and Marvel Studios tends to keep character designs faithful to their source material. Still, Stark has been extra thoughtful with his more recent creations – he outfitted Peter Parker’s first Stark suit with a parachute after Rhodey’s catastrophic crash in Captain America: Civil War, as well as a heating system coming from his own experience in Iron Man 3 – so it would still make sense in-universe.

Tony and Pepper’s love story is one of the best in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (rivaled only by Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter) because it was developed properly throughout the years. And while Tony’s gone, his legacy will live on more likely not with Pepper, but with Morgan, who could the Rescue armor (something that was teased in Avengers: Endgame) down the road.

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