Iron Claw Director Gives Real Reason Why Chris Von Erich Isn’t In The Film

The Von Erich family is one of the most famous families in the history of professional wrestling. The family was marked by tragedy after all the Von Erich brothers passed away tragically leaving only Kevin Von Erich as the survivor.

This infamous story is now set to hit the silver screens in Sean Durkin’s Iron Claw which is going to be released on December 22. However, before the release of the film, the movie had already sparked controversy due to the omission of Chris Von Erich from the film.

The movie’s director, Sean Durkin, told Uproxx that the decision to cut Chris Von Erich was a difficult one but it needed to be done since the script could not withstand another death at that point.

“I’ve never had a more difficult decision to make as a writer. I care so deeply, so it was painful … You have to separate and say, ‘Okay, well, this is a movie, these are characters, and the movie just cannot withstand another death at that point.'”

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Durkin also mentioned that since both Mike and Chris had a similar entry into the business and their deaths were so similar, it made sense to combine the two characters into one.

“You can see it in the videos you watch of [Mike]: He’s obviously super supportive, and wrestling was such a big part of his life,” Durkin continued. “But he also took the brunt of David’s passing and was shoehorned into [wrestling] by his father, a little bit.”

Durkin further mentioned that he had already decided to cut Chris out of the film before he even approached Kevin Von Erich. Luckily for him, Kevin agreed with his viewpoint.

“I didn’t reach out to him until I knew what film I was making,” Durkin explained. “At that point, I had made the decision about Chris, and there was other stuff, too. David had a daughter that died. Kerry had a family. There’s a lot of things that we had to take out to fit it into telling a story in a film.”

He continued:

“I wanted to tell them, ‘Okay, these are some of the hardest decisions I made, and this is why,'” Durkin explained. “I told him about Chris. And just immediately, Kevin was like, ‘That makes sense.'”

It’s understandable why fans are upset that Chris Von Erich has been left out of the film but Durkin’s explanation seems logical.

What do you think about Chris Von Erich being left out of Iron Claw? Do you agree with Sean Durkin’s decision? Sound off in the comments section.