The A24 drama The Iron Claw follows four brothers in the Von Erich wrestling dynasty—Kerry, Kevin, David and Mike—as they gain huge success in the ’70s and ’80s, while outside the ring their lives are plagued by a series of personal tragedies.
The film, directed by Sean Durkin, depicts the so-called “Von Erich curse,” with all but one of the brothers dying young. David (Harris Dickinson) died due to illness, while Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) and Mike (Simon Stanley) died by suicide, leaving Kevin (Zac Efron) as the sole surviving brother.
The film also alludes to another brother, Jack Von Erich, who died at the age of six. But no mention is given to a sixth brother, who existed in real life but is not included in The Iron Claw‘s version of the family’s story: Chris Von Erich.
Chris was the youngest of the six brothers, and followed his siblings into wrestling, although he never attained the same success or fame. Chris fell into a deep depression following the death of his brother Mike, and died by suicide in 1991, at the age of 21, continuing the Von Erich legacy of tragedy.
Why isn’t Chris Von Erich in The Iron Claw?
While transposing the decades-spanning story of the Von Erich brothers into a two-hour film, director Sean Durkin says he had to make some difficult calls regarding which elements to include and which to leave out, explaining that Chris was actually in an early draft of the screenplay, but eventually written out.
“That was one of the toughest decisions I had to make,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “You could make nine hours of The Godfather on this family. I didn’t have that opportunity, so I had to make choices of what could fit in a movie.”
While Chris does not appear in the film, Durkin reveals that he did weave elements of his personality and story into that of Mike Von Erich, the brother who abandons his own passions and goes into wrestling, in order to “narrow” the focus while “trying to keep the essence of him.”
“He and his younger brother Chris were both the younger brothers of these three huge, larger-than-life characters,” said Simon Stanley, who plays Mike in The Iron Claw. “I thought that dynamic was interesting. You can see it in the videos you watch of him: He’s obviously super supportive, and wrestling was such a big part of his life. But he also took the brunt of David’s passing and was shoehorned into [wrestling] by his father, a little bit.”
Philip Ellis
Philip Ellis is News Editor at Men’s Health, covering fitness, pop culture, sex and relationships, and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV, and he is the author of Love & Other Scams.
