As expected, Avengers: Endgame brought the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to an explosive conclusion with an epic final battle that was filled with tons of characters.
However, one of Marvel's most powerful cosmic beings, the Living Tribunal, almost showed up in Avengers: Infinity War.
In an interview with the New York Times, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely said they originally included the Living Tribunal the climactic fight between Thanos, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy on an alien world.
"We wrote a scene in which he appeared during the Titan fight," Markus said, referring to the climactic fight between Thanos, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy on an alien world. "And everyone was like, what?"
"Whoa. He’s got three heads," McFeely added. "It would indicate a whole different level of architecture to the universe and I think that was too much to just throw in."
While he hasn't appeared yet, Markus suggested that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige still hadn't totally ruled out the idea of using the character.
While the Living Tribunal played a major role in the original The Infinity Gauntlet, the three-faced cosmic being has been a part of Marvel's cosmos since Stan Lee, Marie Severin, and Herb Trimpe created him in 1967. His faces hooded face represents Equity, his partially shrouded face is Vengeance, and his fully covered face is Necessity.
The Tribunal serves as the judge, jury, and executioner in universe-shaking affairs of the universe and allowed Thanos to wield the Infinity Gauntlet in the comic book Marvel Universe. At the end of that story, Living Tribunal finally declared that no one being could ever combine the Infinity Gems again.
Even though Marvel added Ego, a character who's usually a living planet, in its films, the three faces of the Living Tribunal was apparently still a little too much for wide audiences to accept.
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.