Avengers: Endgame was one of the biggest cinematic events in moviegoing history. Over the course of nearly 10 years, Marvel Studios created a vast web of interconnected films that culminated in a showdown of colossal proportions. Nearly every main character of the Marvel Cinematic Universe had some role in the war against Thanos, and as fans know, there were casualties. Both Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) met their end before the Mad Titan was brought down.
Now we’re finding out that the death toll could have been much higher. Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo recently sat down with MTV’s Josh Horowitz for an episode of his Happy Sad Confused podcast, during which they revealed that at one point, Marvel Boss Kevin Feige actually pitched killing off all of the original Avengers. Here’s what Joe Russo had to say:
"Without question. That was the stakes of the movie, right? If you don’t feel like, you know… We knew the audience felt that way and we were acutely aware coming off of Infinity War that we had put them in a position where they felt like nobody was safe. And there were lots of rumors swirling about who was going to die. Kevin [Feige] did actually pitch at one point, taking all the OG’s off the board. We thought it was way too aggressive and that the audience wouldn’t be able to process it and in fact, picking one or two characters to make sacrifices throughout the movie might give you moments throughout the film where the action could stop, and you could have emotional catharsis and then continue with the narrative and then add more emotional catharsis."
In this clip from A SECOND LOOK, we dive into the climactic showdown with Thanos from ENDGAME and the @Russo_Brothers reveal at one point Kevin Feige contemplated killing off the big 3, Iron Man, Thor, AND Cap!
— Josh Horowitz (@joshuahorowitz) August 3, 2022
Full episode at https://t.co/e84WokCDhq pic.twitter.com/MsNCgVMObi
Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor nearly all bit the dust in Avengers: Endgame
It’s interesting to hear the Russo Brothers talk about how they had to reign in Kevin Feige’s bloodlust for the final movie of the Infinity Saga. At the same time though, the movie did essentially remove two out of those three characters. While Tony Stark and Black Widow both died heroic deaths, Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Chris Evans) still bowed out of the MCU by going back in time and living to old age. So even if the Russos did avoid killing off Cap, they found a less bloody way to make Endgame the OG Cap’s swan song.
Thor, on the other hand, continues to be a central part of Marvel’s Phase 4. Thor: Love and Thunder premiered earlier this summer and saw the God of Thunder enter into a new phase of his superhero journey: fatherhood. How Thor and his surrogate daughter will fare in the upcoming multiversal conflict of Phase 5 and 6 remains to be seen. Could he be next on the chopping block?
The next Marvel movie coming to theaters is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. That one’s due out on November 11, and will revolve around how the advanced nation of Wakanda and its heroic leaders adapt to the loss of King T’challa, who was played by Chadwick Boseman before the actor’s untimely passing.
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h/t Movieweb