The Director explained why he omitted Chris Von Erich from the movie and he had a hard time cutting him out. Chris was originally in the script for years but he ultimately had to make the decision to cut him after much thought and ended up just making Mike a combination of both Chris and Mike.
“ Tragedy is at the forefront of the Von Erich family’s history, so much so that when creating a movie about the wrestling dynasty some parts — and people — had to be omitted.
“The Iron Claw” tells the story of professional wrestler Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany) and his four sons Kevin (Zac Efron), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), David (Harris Dickinson) and Mike (Stanley Simons) as they attempt to become heavyweight champions and household names in the wrestling world. Along the way, the family faces hardships and multiple deaths that are blamed on the “Von Erich curse.”
A younger brother, Chris Von Erich, was left entirely out of the film. Director and writer Sean Durkin explains to TODAY.com why that choice was made, and the reaction the real-life Kevin Von Erich, the last surviving family member, had when finding out that one of his brothers was not in the film.
“The Iron Claw,” Durkin says, had been in development since 2015. Over the years, there were several versions of the story and cuts were made in order to preserve the quality and length of the film.
“One of the hardest decisions possible was cutting Chris,” the director explains. “And the reason why (is), Chris was in the script for a lot of years and I loved him and loved his character. But ultimately as a writer and filmmaker, I had to separate the real humans from the characters on the page at some point.”
Durkin says there was a “repetition in the brothers’ deaths” that made the film seem unrealistic. “I just didn’t believe (the movie) could sort of withstand one more tragedy.”
There were originally six Von Erich brothers. Fritz Von Erich and wife Doris’ oldest son, Jack Barton Jr., died at the age of 7 after he was accidentally electrocuted by a live wire.
Between 1984 and 1993, four brothers died. David Von Erich died suddenly from enteritis in 1984, while Kerry, Mike and Chris Von Erich died by suicide.
All the deaths are either mentioned or depicted in “The Iron Claw,” except Chris Von Erich's.
Durkin says that in removing Chris Von Erich's story, Mike Von Erich became a combination of the two brothers.
According to a 1997 story by the Dallas Observer, Chris Von Erich had a smaller frame than his brothers and was weaker from his asthma and medication that stunted his growth and made his bones fragile.
"He had pressure from himself and maybe from the fans, too. Sometimes fans can be cruel. They don’t know what they’re doing, but they can say things like, ‘Hey, are you gonna be a wrestler when you grow up?’ and things like that. They would just crush Chris, because he never got tall and healthy," Kevin Von Erich told the publication.
Chris Von Erich died by suicide in 1991 at the age of 21.“
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