We learned a while ago that
Avengers: Infinity War very nearly included Thanos' origin story, and now the movie's writers, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, have talked more about what exactly that sequence would have entailed.
As expected, we would have seen the Mad Titan pleading with his people to cull some of the Titans in order to save the planet.
"We wrote some scenes, sort of flashbacky scenes of a young Thanos on Titan trying to make his case," Markus revealed in an interview with Backstory Magazine. McFeely went on to say that he would have then appealed to a senate, of sorts.
"[Part] of the reason it went away is it got a little too Jor-El on Krypton making his case, you know?" Markus added.
"It was the sort of thing you could imply without having to see."
In order to still allude to what happened in the villain's background, the writers realised that they would have to make good use of those scenes with Doctor Strange and Gamora.
"[It'] a scene that’s only doing one thing. What we settled on were all those scenes that explained any history he had with Gamora," McFeely said.
"Those are doing more than one thing, because they’re highlighting his relationship with the daughter he’s going to have to sacrifice."
This origin story would have been fun to see on screen, but it's easy to see why it was ultimately scrapped in an already busy movie. There is, of course, a chance that
Eternals could touch on Thanos' history, but it all depends just how much that movie delves into the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Are you disappointed that we didn't see this sequence?
Hit the "View List" button to check out some big
reveals from the Avengers: Endgame digital release!
How Long Have Captain America And Iron Man Been Separated?
Captain America and Iron Man finally reunite when Tony Stark is brought back to Earth, but it's not exactly a happy occasion after everything that happened in
Captain America: Civil War. Surprisingly, the Russo Brothers aren't entirely sure how long it's been since they last crossed paths and Joe says
"We'll let someone else figure that out" after throwing around numbers like six and eight...years!
Presumably, he's referring to how long it's been since they've teamed up. At any rate, the significance of the moment Tony finally gives Steve his shield back wasn't lost on the filmmakers.
"That's the value I think in serialized storytelling and telling a mosaic like this, is that you...if you make choices that take years to resolve, the audience feels that," Joe continued.
"Because they too have waited years for this to resolve. And it has been since 2016 since these characters have had a pleasant scene between each other."
Captain Marvel Vs. Thor - Who's Stronger?
One of
Avengers: Endgame's most enjoyable moments comes when Captain Marvel squares up to Thor and the God of Thunder declares that he likes the powerful hero. During the Director's Commentary, Joe goes so far as to say that he believes Carol Danvers could actually put Thor in his place.
"It's interesting seeing the Avengers with Captain Marvel," he muses.
"I think that she dimensionalizes them in a really great way. Just from a pure power standpoint and what her abilities are. If you're talking about a collection of heroes, and you're gonna go face Thanos who we believe still has the gauntlet."
"She is as powerful, if not more powerful than Thor, and you suddenly have hope again," the director continues. "Because they all know what happened at the end of the last movie, [Thanos] walked through them like they were paper."
Why Captain America Swears More
You may not have noticed this, but Captain America swears quite a bit more in
Avengers: Endgame than he did in previous MCU releases (how times have changed since that "Language" moment, eh?).
That's something Joe pointed out when he noted,
"You notice, this 2023 Cap swears a lot more than the old Cap." McFeely adds:
"Yeah, I noticed this. I didn't remember it on set." Joe, however, has an explanation, as he points out that
, "I mean, this guy's been through a lot..."
So, intentional or not, there's a good reason for all that extra swearing!
Smart Hulk Wasn't Finished Until The Last Minute
"Smart Hulk is one of those characters that we really didn't see in full, until, like, the last week before we delivered the movie because the VFX take so long on a character like that," Joe reveals, making it clear just how difficult it was to pull of the character's new look in
Avengers: Endgame.
"We should give credit to Mark Ruffalo, who is an amazing actor," Anthony added. "He worked so hard figuring this character out, because, you know he's been playing these two versions. He's been playing Banner. He's been playing Hulk. But figuring out who the combination of them is, was a real journey for him. We did a lot of experimentation. Spent a lot of time on a motion capture stage, playing with different ideas with Mark. He worked really hard to find this character."
Black Widow's Mission In Tokyo
Avengers: Endgame is a very long, very busy movie, so why take the time to have Black Widow track Hawkeye down in Tokyo?
"There's no one who could have pulled him out of this other than her," says Joe.
"No one else shows up and gets him to come home. "
"Well it's also implied that this is essentially what he did for her when he pulled her out of being a Russian Agent," Markus adds before Joe concludes: "That's right it comes full circle, their relationship. Right? He had an opportunity to kill her and he changed her life, and now here she is changing his." Whether we'll see their first meeting in Black Widow obviously remains to be seen.
Wait, People Laughed At Thanos' Decapitation?
Apparently, both the movie's writers and directors have been present at screenings where people break into laughter after Thanos' decapitation. Needless to say, that's left them baffled.
"It gets a laugh every time I'm in the theater," McFeely says.
"Or like a nervous shock, right?" Anthony points out that he's noticed the same thing, and also puts it down to what a jaw-dropping moments it is.
"People laugh at that and I was always shocked by that."
However, McFeely was quick to point out that Alan Silvestri's score helps take away some of that levity.
"I think the Silvestri score and the long slow walk here make you go, "Oh, crap. We've got nothing now," he explains, referring to the hopelessness of their situation.
The Insane Number Of VFX Shots
You don't need us to tell you about the huge amount of CGI that's utilized in
Avengers: Endgame, as almost every scene is enhanced with visual effects. However, between this movie and
Avengers: Infinity War, it's said that there were 6000 shots with visual effects.
That might be a new record for a two films shot back to back, and shows just how much work went into them.
The Ramifications Of The Five-Year Time-Jump
Avengers: Endgame's jump five years into the future has led to a lot of discussion, and during this Director's Commentary, the filmmakers talked more about what happened to those who were in planes or boats at sea.
"[It's a] very complicated premise, right?" Anthony asks.
"You know, bringing people back from five years ago is a messy proposition any way you look at it, not even talking about the time travel complexities of it. You know, that's something I know some people like to think about, after watching the movie." McFeely is unsure about what happened to those who were on a plane, while Anthony questions people's marital decisions.
Joe, however, points out that "one of the most compelling things about the movie, is doubling down at the end and not reversing it." As McFeely says, they have to "own" that decision.
Brie Larson Played Captain Marvel In Endgame Before Her Solo Movie
Before Brie Larson started working on
Captain Marvel, she was already playing Carol Danvers in
Avengers: Endgame.
"It should be noted, people might know this already, that's basically Brie Larson's first or second day," McFeely said, before Joe then confirmed that her conversation with Thor in The Avengers Compound was actually the Oscar-winning star's first day on the movie's set.
How The Idea Of Time-Travel Came Up
After finishing
Avengers: Infinity War's screenplay, McFeely and Markus admit that they found themselves in a tough spot as they needed to find a way to undo everything Thanos did in that film.
Well, the scene between Steve Rogers and Scott Long where they discuss time-travel reportedly mirrored their own conversations early on when they were talking about how to write the screenplay.
Continue reading below to check out a breakdown
of Avengers: Endgame's deleted scenes!
At Home With Tony Stark
A scene that was clearly meant to serve as Tony Stark's reintroduction after that five year time-jump, we see Tony and Pepper spending some quality time together in the kitchen preparing a meal for them and their daughter. It's a nice little sequence that sets the mood and shows us the hero's new home life, but not one that was really essential.
The fact that Pepper refers to their daughter in this scene would have also lessened the impact of that big reveal in the film itself when Tony heads out into the garden to find Morgan.
Why Captain America Crashed That Plane
As Steve Rogers and Rhodey recap the history of the Infinity Stones, the latter has some big questions about why the Tesseract ended up at the bottom of the ocean during World War II.
Asking Cap why he found it necessary to crash the plane, Steve explains that it was because it was full of bombs. However, he's not so quick to answer why he didn't just jump out before it went into the ice and the scene ends before we find out!
It's a great little moment, and one it would have been nice to see in the final cut. However, it's easy to see why it went.
Blowing Up The Mothership
Some surveillance footage from 2012 is shown as Captain America battles the Chitauri aliens, and Rocket questions Earth's Mightiest Heroes about exactly how long they were fighting them. When Black Widow mentions that it was at least two or three hours, the Guardian bursts into laughter and simply can't understand why it took them that long to stop the "suckiest" army in the galaxy.
After Steve admits that they didn't realise blowing up the mothership was an option, Rocket's laughter is cut short when Tony uses a razor to shave the top of his head!
Thor Needs To Focus
In 2013 era Asgard, the God of Thunder takes a leak much to the disgust of Rocket. The Guardian tries to talk him round but with no luck, especially as Thor is well aware that they're just hours away from an attack from the Dark Elves which will result in the death of his mother and countless Asgardians.
As Thor fumbles to find the device Rocket needs to retrieve the Aether, we see that his pockets are full of candy bars and this explains why Rocket is the one to take it from Jane while Thor meets with his mother. It's a fun scene, but one which wasn't necessary in an already lengthy movie.
Leaving A Better World Behind
In a brief exchange with his father Howard Stark as they leave that military bunker, Tony talks about how they both want to leave a better world behind them and the pressures of doing that for their children. It's during this part of their conversation that Howard offers his son a job!
It's unclear whether he's referring to S.H.I.E.L.D. or Stark Industries, but this a cool little scene that would have been nice to see included - even if it wouldn't have added much to the final cut.
The Heroes Take A Knee
After Tony Stark draws his last breath, the shocked heroes surrounding him all take a knee to pay tribute to the fallen Avenger who sacrificed himself in order to put an end to the Mad Titan.
While it's nice to see them pay their respects, it doesn't really make sense for some of the characters who never even met him to pay tribute like this, while the whole thing comes across a little over the top and nowhere near as good as the funeral scene we ended up getting.
However, Doctor Strange's reaction is very interesting, as he looks particularly broken up by what's happened.
Gamora's Escape
Part of the same scene as the one mentioned above, Gamora watches on as the heroes take a knee. and this confirms that she obviously survived the third snap and wasn't dusted alongside the Mad Titan and his army.
It's safe to assume that Marvel Studios wanted to keep Gamora's fate ambigiuous, hence why even a different version of this moment didn't make it into the movie.
Have you guys watched Avengers: Endgame's deleted scenes yet? Which of them do you think should have been left in the final cut? Let us know your thoughts on that in the comments section.