Sometimes it feels like the 14,000,605 possible outcomes Doctor Strange saw when he went forward in time and saw the results of the ‘endgame’ in the fight against Thanos are a sly in-joke from the people behind the latest Avengers films. When you’ve got such a huge task to deal with, and so many characters on the board, how the hell do you decide what bits of story to keep, and where do you put it all so that the narrative flows properly? It’s hard to envy the Russos and their writers, Christopher Malkus and Stephen McFeely, when there’s that much resting on their decisions.
We all know how things turned out in Avengers: Infinity War (and if you don’t, why are you reading this? There are spoilers coming, away with you!) – Thanos snapped his fingers and half the sentient universe turned to dust, leading to a blockbuster cinematic gut-punch the likes of which haven’t seen for a long time. Oh, and memes. There were are a lot of memes. They made us feel very slightly better.
But in a new interview with Empire, Stephen McFeely confirms that at one stage the grim-o-rama that was the end of Avengers: Infinity War was pushed some way into Avengers: Endgame, because there was just too much going on in the plot.
“We had so much story in those early drafts of Infinity War that, if anything, we thought we maybe shouldn’t do The Snap until the end of act one of Endgame.”
MCU maestro Kevin Feige knew all along that The Snap was the right way to end Infinity War, however.
“We talked about that ending for years and years and years,” Feige said. “It was the reason to adapt Infinity Gauntlet. What was the most shocking thing we could do? End the movie with The Snap.”
Well, yes Kevin. But what about our feelings? Eh? What about our- oh, he’s gone.
Avengers: Endgame will be released on 26th April. Our feelings may also be released again.
