Avengers: Endgame's Epic Battle Was Originally Even Bigger

CBR

By Renaldo Matadeen

Published May 1, 2019

The Avengers: Endgame writing team sheds insight into how the finale of the movie was initially sculpted to be even more bombastic.

WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame, in theaters now.

Avengers: Endgame's finale was one of the superhero genre's most epic in terms of scope and story, as Marvel Studios brought together heroes across 21 movies to fight Thanos' forces once and for all. However, screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus have revealed this final act was actually scripted to be even bigger.

When asked about how the studio reacted to the writers wanting every single superhero for its bombastic finale, Markus told the New York Times, "I think they knew it was coming. We wrote and shot an even much longer battle, with its own three-act structure."

"It's why it took so long. We shot for 200 days for two movies," McFeely reiterated on the brawl, which saw Captain America flanked by heroes returning from the dead after Infinity War.

As for other scenes that didn't make the final cut, the duo revealed there was a lot more that pit the heroes in the trenches, akin to World War I.

"It didn't play well, but we had a scene in a trench where, for reasons, the battle got paused for about three minutes and now there's 18 people all going, 'What are we going to do?' 'I'm going to do this.' 'I'm going to do this,'" McFeely clarified. "Just bouncing around this completely fake, fraudulent scene. When you have that many people, it invariably is, one line, one line, one line. And that's not a natural conversation."

The duo would know how to balance heroes and humor in such high stakes, as they also wrote the three Captain America movies.

"It also required them to find enough shelter to have a conversation in the middle of the biggest battle," Markus continued. "It wasn't a polite World War I battle where you have a moment."

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Don Cheadle as War Machine, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Danai Gurira as Okoye and Bradley Cooper as Rocket, with Gwyneth Paltrow Pepper Potts, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Benedict Wong as Wong, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Josh Brolin as Thanos. The film is in theaters now.