Before Avengers: Endgame debuted, fans were positively buzzing about theories on how Thanos might finally be defeated. What turn of events could possibly “undo” all the unforeseen deaths of the last movie, or at least offer something of a satisfying ending?
When the Russo Brothers and writer Stephen McFeely arrived at their answer, it was much more unorthodox than we could have imagined: time travel.
On the commentary track for Avengers: Endgame, director Joe Russo and writer Stephen McFeely broached the subject of time travel itself as well as what it meant for the heroes who enacted the plan in the first place, acknowledging it as a “ludicrous” notion.
“Ultimately we realized that, look, time travel doesn’t exist, so it’s a ludicrous notion,” said Joe Russo of the idea. “It’s a construct of genre filmmaking and you know, I think when we all bought in on it was when we realized the emotional scenes that could take place between the characters and people that they loved who are no longer with them.” And honestly, it’s a good thing that they did. Writer Stephen McFeely weighed in on the concept as well, noting that going this route would ultimately end up allowing the team to “repair” people as well.
“It’s those scenes, we’ll get to them, are gonna do many things,” he said. “They’re gonna collect stones, but they’re gonna repair people.” By going forward with their time travel-centric narrative (which we won’t spoil the events that follow here), this does end up coming true, with several characters seeing otherwise positive outcomes as a result of the decision.
“So, ultimately, if you’re entertained by them coming up with the plan, executing the plan, and then you’re emotionally fulfilled by what they do while they’re executing the plan, it’s worth the construct,” said Russo of using time travel in the end. The ends justified the means here, as the staff involved in bringing Endgame to fruition really began to buy into it when everything came full circle.
With that in mind, we should all take a moment and think about how we could have been looking at a much different movie, and some of those harrowing deaths from Avengers: Infinity War could have been far more permanent. Thanks for going out on a limb with time travel after all, guys!
