As of right now,
Avengers: Endgame has made over $2.6 billion at the worldwide box office and still stands a very good chance of becoming the highest grossing movie of all-time.
It goes without saying that it's been a great month for Marvel Studios, and we've been treated to well over a dozen revealing interviews with the Russo Brothers and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely in which they've take a deep dive into the biggest superhero movie of all-time.
Now, we've taken a look back through all of those to bring you guys a definitive guide to the biggest, game-changing reveals, which not only change how we look at this movie, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole.
As well as intel on scrapped cameos, we learn that the Infinity Stones aren't as gone as we thought, two conflicting explanations for Captain America's trip back in time, and an entirely different status quo for this shared world.
So, to check out this recap in full, simply click on the "View List" button down below!
The Living Tribunal Nearly Made An Appearance
We're going to kick off by looking back at a major alteration made to
Avengers: Infinity War which would have surely had major ramifications for the sequel. According to the movie's writers, they wanted to include the Living Tribunal, a cosmic character who serves as the Judge of the Marvel Multiverse and the arbitrator of cosmic justice.
"We did try to put the Living Tribunal in the first movie," Markus confirmed when asked if there were any characters they weren't able to include across the two movies.
"We wrote a scene in which he appeared during the Titan fight. And everyone was like, what?"
"Whoa," McFeely adds. "He’s got three heads. It would indicate a whole different level of architecture to the universe and I think that was too much to just throw in." It's easy to see where he's coming from but Markus was quick to say that, "The idea’s still in [Marvel Studios President] Kevin [Feige]’s court."
The Infinity Stones Haven't Gone
During a Q&A with Joe Russo,
Avengers: Endgame's co-director dropped a shocking revelation which may or may not have major ramifications moving forward. According to one Redditor who was in attendance, they told fans that
"Thanos only reduced the stones to the atomic level. The stones are still present in the universe." That surely means someone else could find them, right?
The Dead Stay Dead
Fans hoping that Gamora and Black Widow would be resurrected by the second (and third) snap were disappointed to learn that it simply doesn't work like that and the only characters to come back are those who were dusted during Thanos' initial attack on Earth.
"No, I mean we only brought back the people who were effectively disintegrated by the Snap at the end of Infinity War," Markus confirms.
"Anybody who died over the course of the movie through neck-snapping or stabbing or being thrown off a cliff or having a Mind Stone torn out of their head stayed dead." How will The Vision return on Disney+ then? We'll get to that later.
Loki Is Alive...In An Alternate Timeline
When Earth's Mightiest Heroes travelled back to the events of
The Avengers in 2012, their mistake allowed Loki to get his hands on the Tesseract and make his escape. That means he was never taken back to Asgard so does this explain why he's getting his own series on Disney's streaming service?
"Loki could absolutely still be alive in an alternate timeline," Anthony teases, hinting at a Multiverse made up of different timelines which will be explored by Marvel Studios in future releases.
Captain America Lived His Life In An Alternate Timeline...
Talking of alternate timelines and the Multiverse, the Russo Brothers have provided an explanation for what Captain America did when he travelled back in time and lived out his life with Peggy.
"If Cap were to go back into the past and live there, he would create a branched reality," co-director Joe Russo explains.
"The question then becomes, how is he back in this reality to give the shield away?"
"Interesting question, right?" Joe continues. "Maybe there’s a story there. There’s a lot of layers built into this movie and we spent three years thinking through it, so it’s fun to talk about it and hopefully fill in holes for people so they understand what we’re thinking."
Well, that solves that...right?
...Or Not?
Bizarrely, the movie's writers have a completely different interpretation and believe that Captain America grew old in the current timeline and was the father of Peggy's children and her "secret" husband. So, when he visited Peggy in that retirement home, she was well aware that he was her husband...or did he change things by travelling back to the past? Honestly, we don't know!
"That is our theory," he says when asked if there were two Captain Americas in existence for a time.
"We are not experts on time travel, but the Ancient One specifically states that when you take an Infinity Stone out of a timeline it creates a new timeline. So Steve going back and just being there would not create a new timeline. So I reject the "Steve is in an alternate reality" theory."
"I do believe that there is simply a period in world history from about '48 to now where there are two Steve Rogers," he continues, further confusing matters. "And anyway, for a large chunk of that one of them is frozen in ice. So it's not like they'd be running into each other."
When Kevin Feige was asked to clarify which answer is the correct one, he chose not to!
Captain America Has Always Been Worthy
On the subject of Captain America's ability to wield Mjolnir, it turns out it's been a long time coming.
"I think everyone who’s a Marvel fan in that moment where Cap tested the hammer, felt deep down in their heart that he was worthy and that he could potentially lift that and boy wouldn’t it be special if one day he did," Joe said when asked about the moment in
Avengers: Age of Ultron that Captain America first attempted to life Thor's hammer.
So why didn't he use it before now? Was he not worthy? "In our heads, he was able to wield it," Anthony confirms. "He didn’t know that until that moment in Ultron when he tried to pick it up, but Cap’s sense of character and his sort of humility and sort of out of deference to Thor’s ego, Cap in that moment realizing he can move the hammer, decides not to."
The Marvel Multiverse
The
Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer revealed the existence of the Multiverse and while there's been some speculation that Mysterio is lying to Spider-Man and Nick Fury, it sounds like
Avengers: Endgame did indeed lead to its creation.
"What's most compelling is that this is a multiverse," Joe confirms.
"But that is what's most interesting. You've seen everything else, everything else about being looped in time or whatever, you've seen it all. What's really interesting is that you create multiple timelines and it's said in the movie twice."
He also elaborated on Bruce Banner's comments and explained that while changing the past doesn't change your timeline, it does create a new, alternate future. "What happens is you then create a new future by going into the past. So, you have to travel to the past, come back to that present and then fix it moving forward because you can’t' alter it from back there. So, by necessity, by logic, you then create -- if you were to stay back there -- you would create an alternate timeline."
The Vision Is Still Dead
Heading into
Avengers: Endgame, it's fair to say that we expected to learn something about The Vision and the prevailing theory was that he would return as a greyed out, emotionless android.
Well, despite the fact he's set to return on Disney+ in
WandaVision alongside Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch, Joe remained coy, saying:
"Vision? He’s dead as far as I know." Do you buy that?
Iron Man Nearly Squared Off With Heimdall
Initially, the writers didn't want to revisit the events of
The Avengers, and the first draft instead saw Iron Man head to Asgard to retreive the Tesseract according to McFeely.
"[There’s] a moment in the M.C.U., if you’re paying very close attention, where the Aether is there and the Tesseract is in the vault. In that iteration, we were interested in Tony going to Asgard. He had a stealth suit, so he was invisible, and he fought Heimdall, who could see him."
That would have been epic to see but Idris Elba has now moved on to the DCEU for
The Suicide Squad (where, ironically, he'll be working with
Guardians of the Galaxy helmer James Gunn).
The Movie Had A Very Different Title
Ahead of
Avengers: Endgame's release, there was a lot of speculation about the movie's title and
Avengers Assemble and
Avengers: Annihilation were both rumoured possibilities.
Well, the Russo Brothers have since revealed that it once had a very different title:
Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet. Apparently, it went by that moniker
"for a long time" and while they don't elaborate on why it was changed, there may be a very good reason why it became
Endgame.
During an interview, Zoe Saldana referred to it as
Infinity Gauntlet so they clearly wanted to maintain the surprise for comic fans.
Thor Nearly Got Back In Shape For The Final Battle
Thor goes through a very unexpected transformation in the movie and the writers revealed in one interview that they thought about having the God of Thunder return to his usual ripped self in time for the final battle against Thanos before thinking better of it.
"It came up but we were really adamant about not doing that because I think that would treat it more like a joke," McFeely says. "And the idea is that this is who he is now and he's still a hero. And when he calls down the lightning and gets both hammers, all it does is put a suit on him and twist his beard into a braid, it doesn't magically take 200 pounds off."
Markus adds: "And I think what his mother tells him, 'Don't be who you're supposed to be, be the best version of who you are,' includes that. We didn't want to treat the weight gain like the issue that he needed to get over. Like 'Thor got fat and now he needs to go on a diet.' No, he needs to feel OK about himself no matter who he is."
The MCU's New Status Quo
It's pretty obvious that
Avengers: Endgame will have major ramifications for the MCU moving forward but it turns out that the ramifications of the time-jump will be felt in a big way from here.
"Oh for sure, it's the Marvel Universe as far as we know is five years ahead of where it was at the end of Infinity War. Full stop. Period," McFeely confirmed when asked about how the MCU changes from here.
"Yes. It is a big swing, it's complicated, it means that half of the planet basically has either lost five years or lived through a terrible five years. Yes, that's the MCU going forward."
Katherine Langford's Role Was Cut
Fans noticed that there was no sign of Katherine Langford in
Avengers: Endgame so where was the actress? Well, she did indeed shoot scenes but those were scrapped for a very good reason.
"There was an idea that we had that Tony was going to go into the metaphysical way station that Thanos goes in when he snapped his fingers. And that there was going to be a future version of his daughter in that way station," Anthony confirmed, revealing that it wasn't included because test audiences found it too confusing and didn't really get who the character was.
Joe added: "The intention was that his future daughter, because these films are dealing with magic, his future daughter forgave him and sort of gave him peace to go. And the idea felt resonant. But it was just too many ideas in an overly complicated movie."
Captain America's Story May Not Be Over
Over the past several weeks, fans have made it clear they would love to see a movie delving into Captain America's time in the past to find out what exactly he was up to. Asked if there's a chance that could happen, Markus said, "
Possibly. I think maybe all I did was Steve was a stay-at-home dad and Peggy went to work at S.H.I.E.L.D. I don't know that there were any adventures."
Tony Stark Almost Didn't Say "I Am Iron Man"
"Tony used to not say anything in that moment," the directors confirmed when asked how they came up with the idea for Tony Stark's now iconic final line of dialogue.
"And we were in the editing room going, ‘He has to say something. This a character who has lived and died by quips.’ And we just couldn’t, we tried a million different last lines. Thanos was saying 'I am inevitable.'"
"And our editor Jeff Ford, who’s been with us all four movies and is an amazing storyteller, said ‘Why don’t we just go full circle with it and say I am Iron Man.’ And we’re like, ‘Get the cameras! We have to shoot this tomorrow.'"
Hawkeye Was Supposed To Die, Not Black Widow
"There was, for sure," McFeely responded when asked if there was ever a draft featuring Clint Barton making the leap off that cliff on Vormir to make the ultimate sacrifice.
"Jen Underdahl, our visual effects producer, read an outline or draft where Hawkeye goes over. And she goes, 'Don’t you take this away from her.' I actually get emotional thinking about it."
"And it was true," Markus continues, "It was him taking the hit for her. It was melodramatic to have him die and not get his family back. And it is only right and proper that she’s done."
The Hulk Won't Make A Miraculous Recovery
There's been a lot of speculation about what comes next for the Jade Giant; will we see his Planet Hulk persona return to could he even transform into the villainous Maestro? Whatever the answer may be, that arm of his won't be miraculously healed.
"He's lost an arm…that's not coming back," Joe
Russo confirmed.
"He's damaged himself. It's permanent damage, the same way there was permanent damage with Thanos. It's irreversible. As you may notice, his arm is skinnier, it's blackened. So he loses a lot of strength there."
That's obviously going to change the character's dynamic in a big way, and The Hulk was clearly still badly injured right at the end of the movie as he could be seen wearing a sling at Tony Stark's funeral. "Who knows? There's a lot of really smart people left," Russo said. "Maybe somebody helps him repair that. Maybe somebody gives him a new arm. I have no idea where that character goes from here."
Why The Falcon Is The New Captain America
At the end of
Avengers: Endgame, the MCU has a new Captain America in the form of Sam Wilson. Why, though, was he a better choice to wield the shield than Bucky?
"We definitely would sit around and talk about what made the best story moving forward, and Sam just always felt like the right recipient," Joe confirms.
"After all, Bucky is damaged."
"And Sam seemed to most share [Steve Rogers'] qualities," Anthony adds. "When they first met, the bond between those two characters just spoke to a symmetry in their moral nature."
Nova Nearly Appeared In Infinity War Too
We started this list off with a look at something that nearly happened in
Infinity War which would have had major ramifications in
Endgame, so it seems right to end it with another. Asked about scenes which didn't make the final cut, the movie's writers confirm that Nova was very nearly introduced.
"I remember going through several scenarios of Nova. Thanos could come and kill all the Nova Corps, except one guy. Richard Rider, who then becomes … I think in that scenario he became the herald, kind of like the Hulk was [in Infinity War when he crashed into the Sanctum Sanctorum]. Someone who could come out and tell people." Now, his future is back in Kevin Feige's hands!