Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 look set to serve as a two-part finale to the current era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and in a new interview, the writing team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have shed some light on how they went about handling that. In fact, it turns out that in one draft of the movie, Thanos' universe changing snap didn't occur until the second movie.
"What we realized is, it would feel more like a cliffhanger than we intended," Markus explained, saying that they wanted both instalments to feel distinctive from each other. Had the snap ended up happening in Avengers 4, "it would be a continuation of exactly what you were watching before."
It's not clear how Avengers: Infinity War would have ended had the snap been saved but including it in that movie meant "[they] went all the way to a tragic ending. And then one where mysterious things happen that I can’t tell you about," Markus added referring to the events of 2019's Avengers 4.
"It’s really, I think, difficult to predict where we go next," McFeely said in regards to that movie delivering surprises that fans aren't expecting. "I read a tweet this morning that said, ‘Good morning to everyone, except Markus and McFeely,'" he concludes, referring to some of the fan backlash. "We still argue that ‘Infinity War’ is its own, complete film. It’s just the one where the bad guy wins."