While it seemed a pretty safe bet that at least one of the original line-up of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes wouldn’t make it to the final credits of Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios ended its Infinity Saga by taking out not one, not two, but three of the OG Avengers, with both Black Widow and Iron Man falling in battle against Thanos and Steve Rogers opting to lay down the shield for a life in the past with Peggy Carter.
Taking out half of the team that really kick-started the MCU’s unprecedented run of box office success was certainly a bold move by Marvel, but it seems that Kevin Feige originally wanted to go several steps further – three, in fact – by killing off all six of the original Avengers.
“Kevin’s initial pitch was that it was Toy Story 3 – a ‘they’re all gonna jump into a furnace together’ concept,’ Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame director Joe Russo is quoted as stating in the new book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (via Screen Rant).
While Russo doesn’t offer any further direct quotes, the book goes on to state that “the brothers’ pushback was that there was no possible way for the story to be able to take the time to celebrate each one of them. And that, for the fans, it was an impossible scenario to walk out of the theater and process.”
What do you make of this news? Were the Russos right to push back against Kevin Feige’s original plan to take the original Avengers out in one fell swoop?
Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Josh Brolin (Thanos), Brie Larson (Captain Marvel), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang), Don Cheadle (War Machine), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther), Tom Holland (Spider-Man), Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier), Anthony Mackie (Falcon), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange), Danai Gurira (Okoye), Benedict Wong (Wong), Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax), Bradley Cooper (Rocket), Vin Diesel (Groot), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Evangeline Lilly (The Wasp), Letitia Wright (Shuri) and Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie).
