Avengers: Endgame is notable for the box office records it has broken. It was the first film to score one billion nominal dollars within its opening week, and it became the highest-grossing film of all time without adjusting for inflation when it outgrossed James Cameron's 2009 Avatar in nominal dollars on July 20th, 2019. (Avatar would retake the title in 2021 following a re-release in China, but this film still holds the record when you only consider the original run.) Adjusting for inflation, it is the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time, falling about a billion dollars short of the highest-grossing film of all time with inflation, 1939's Gone with the Wind, and about half a billion dollars short of Avatar (Titanic (1997) and A New Hope make up the rest of the top five).
It also toppled the record set by its predecessor for the largest global opening weekend by nearly double ($1.223 billion vs. $640 million) and also scored the largest opening weekend in North America with $357 million ($100 million higher than Infinity War). The latter also stood as the highest opening weekend for any movie in a singular territory until 2021, when Detective Chinatown 3 opened with $398 million in China.
Chris Evans plays Steve Rogers, Steve's past self from 2012, and Loki shapeshifting as Steve.
Ditto for every main cast member from the first Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy movies who both play their 2012/14 versions of the characters in the past and the present 2023 versions, some even in the same settings as the others.
Mark Ruffalo claimed in one interview that he received multiple different scripts throughout filming just in case he let something slip.note Recall that he actually came within a hair of saying in an interview prior to Thor: Ragnarok that half the universe would die in the next film, and followed it up by accidentally bootlegging part of the movie.
Tom Holland was actually only given his lines, after he'd spoiled previous films to the point of it becoming a meme. In scenes involving green screening, he didn't even know who he was talking to. This is why the only actors he actually shared the screen with until the funeral were Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow.
According to the directors, Tony's funeral was given the production codename "The Wedding". According to Tom Holland during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, him and the rest of the cast didn't realize it was Tony Stark's funeral until they noticed that Robert Downey Jr. wasn't on set and everyone was wearing black. The only ones at the funeral that knew beforehand were Chris Evans (who again had read the whole script) and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Jeremy Renner genuinely didn't know what was happening while shooting the opening scene of Clint's family disappearing, as he hadn't seen the script for Avengers: Infinity War at that point.
Actor Leaves, Character Dies: This is the last film on the contracts of both Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. Iron Man dies using the Infinity Gauntlet to kill Thanos and his armies, and Captain America goes back to the past to be with Peggy Carter, returning to the present by The Slow Path as an elderly widower.
Ascended Fanon: A common meme/fan theory about the scene in Age of Ultron where Thor trolls the other Avengers by trying to have them lift Mjölnir, only to instantly stop laughing when Steve Rogers manages to nudge it a little, is that Steve actually could have lifted the hammer easily, but didn't because he's too humble and nice of a guy to want to upstage Thor like that. In the final battle, at one point Mjölnir flies away from Thor's hand... and Cap picks it up easily. Not only that, but when he sees this, Thor excitedly exclaims "I knew it!" just like any potential fan-theorists watching this scene.
A lot of fans misquote Hawkeye's memetic line as "Don't do that. Don't give me hope" whenever good news seems to be on the horizon. That being said, Clint never actually says the first sentence in the film, only saying "Don't..." in a pleading tone before saying the second sentence.
In a similar fashion to the above quote, we have Hulk's quote of "I see this as an absolute win!", also doubling as a visual example thanks to reaction images. While the quote itself is said directly after he says "Time Travel!", reaction images with the quote use the shot from said quote. That said, Hulk never says his memetic line in a cheery way. He only says it after Steve walks away in disapproval and by that point he’s offscreen.
Multiple Spanish memes and reaction images often have Thanos saying "Supongo que se acabó" (I suppose it is over) as he meets his definite demise by disintegration. However, in all versions of the actual film, Thanos simply remains solemnly silent as he accepts his end.
A deliberate case in the closing credits. The names are shown besides clips of the actors, but the original six Avengers come last and with much more prestige than any others, including the actors' written signatures, creating a 'best-for-last' effect very much like the final Curtain Call of a play. Downey Jr. himself, the man who was the origin of the entire MCU, is billed dead last. Fittingly many theaters turned into stadiums as people gave Iron Man standing ovations.
For a straighter case of the trope, aside from the three cases in Advertised Extra (Brie Larson has a much smaller role than it seemed by the promotion, though there's a reason for spare use of Carol; Danai Gurira and Benedict Wong are on the poster, and yet Okoye and Wong barely appear, let alone have much plot relevance), Jon Favreau is on the poster's billing block. Happy Hogan only appears in the final minutes, starting with Tony's funeral.
After Thor disarms Thanos of his double-bladed sword, forcing the Mad Titan to give him first a bare-handed beatdown, he then grabs Stormbreaker just as Thor summons it back to his hand. Thanos then try to kill Thor with Stormbreaker, only to be hit by Mjölnir thrown by Captain America. Just as Thanos gets up from this blow, he's no longer holding Stormbreaker but his own sword, despite the aforementioned disarm.
During the panning shot of all the heroes assembling behind Captain America, just before the latter turns to face Thanos, you can see that his shield is perfectly circular (when it's actually been broken in half).
Despite shrinking down and being busy hotwiring his van, Scott can be seen as Giant-Man shoving a Leviathan through a portal in the background as Black Panther is bringing them the Infinity Gauntlet.
New Asgard is in Norway, specifically Tønsberg going by the sign; however, the filming location was the village of St Abbs in Scotland. The giveaway was the back of the truck that Banner and Rocket rode; it still had a UK license plate. The sharp-eyed will notice other nods to Scotland in the background including a distinctive orange-and-blue bottle of Irn-Bru (a distinctively Scottish soda) and the Innis & Gunn beer Thor drinks.
The Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta is used as the Avengers' facility in Upstate New York. Atlanta neighborhood of Little Five Points doubles as Tokyo.
Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Japanese dub, Pepper Potts is voiced by television actress Sayaka Kobayashi.
Content Leak: Days before the film's world premiere, a five-minute clip containing several scenes from the film (mostly from the second and third acts) was leaked all over social media. The Russo brothers issued a letter telling fans again not to spoil the film to others and used the hashtag #DontSpoilTheEndgame.
Dave Bautista has expressed disappointment that Drax wasn't the one to kill Thanos in this movie, due to the latter's involvement in the death of Drax's family. As such, he felt that the potential relationship between the two characters was somewhat wasted.
James Gunn was less than pleased to see Thor take off into space alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy at the end of this film, as he had written much of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 at that point in time, and had no intention of revising the story to include him. Thankfully, Thor would leave the team of his own volition in Thor: Love and Thunder, which Gunn expressed gratitude for Taika Waititi for putting in that movie.
Creator Cameo: Jim Starlin, the creator of Thanos and the writer of the original The Infinity Gauntlet storyline appears as one of the members of Steve's support group.
Deleted Role: Katherine Langford was announced to have been cast in an undisclosed role that was later confirmed to be an adult version of Morgan Stark. She filmed her scene during reshoots but it does not appear in the film, although it was included in the extras of the Disney+ release. The scene would have been her and Tony meeting and saying goodbye in the Soul World. The Russos stated it felt too repetitive with the end of the last movie, and it likely didn't help that they needed to contrive a way to let the audience know this was an adult Morgan so they wouldn't be confused at Tony seeming to have a big emotional moment with some random woman.
Demand Overload: Ticket pre-sales for this movie causedmultiple ticket sites throughout the world to either crash or slow down. To give a perspective on this, the film was able to claim the highest box office pre-sales record in six hours.
Directed by Cast Member: The European Spanish dub was directed by Rafael Calvo, who reprised his role as Rhodey.
When filming the opening scene, nobody told Jeremy Renner that Thanos killed half the universe at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. As such, his portrayal of Clint's confusion at the sudden disappearance of his family is completely genuine.
During Tony's angry grieving rant to Steve at their debrief, Robert Downey Jr. got so emotionally wrapped up in it that he ad-libbed the growled "LIAR" at the end of it. Since it was unscripted, it prompted a genuine reaction from everyone else.
Happy Hogan's morose reaction to Tony Stark's death and his wistful memories of the man during his funeral was in part due to Jon Favreau's genuine feelings about the character he first introduced back in 2008 being killed off; he previously tried to convince The Russo Brothers not to do it due to believing it would be too devastating.
Co-director Joe Russo claimed that Steve created another alternate timeline when he went back to the 1940s, and then traveled back to the original one after Peggy passed away. Since this take is consistent with the time travel logic explained in the film, most fans defer to this explanation.
Meanwhile, screenwriters Markus and McFeely say they believe that alternate timelines are only created when removing the Infinity Stones (which Steve didn't do on that trip), so it was a Stable Time Loop. In practical terms, this means that Steve was always Peggy's mysterious husband, and Steve did not intervene in history in spite of knowing what would happen (as far as we know) to preserve his timeline. They say that they had always intended this as far back as Winter Soldier,note Which would mean that yes, Steve did make out with his niece-by-marriage. though what actually happened is open to interpretation. Markus and McFeely have freely admitted that this goes somewhat against the film's logic regarding how time travel works, but stated that the scene's emotional weight was the more important factor to consider.
Meanwhile, when asked about the two contradictory takes and which one was accurate, Kevin Feige simply responded to the AMA question with a one-worded answer: "Yes."
Focus Group Ending: Katherine Langford's role as an adult Morgan Stark got cut out because test audiences found her scene too confusing and too similar to the end of Avengers: Infinity War.
Foiler Footage: Initial trailers show Natasha with fully blonde hair during scenes that were eventually revealed to be post-Time Skip. Particularly, she's still blonde when she and Steve see Scott Lang at the front gate.
Thor giggles after saying "I like this one" in the trailer. In the movie, it doesn't happen, given his mood at that point.
Producer Kevin Feige mentioned the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "All Good Things..." as a key influence for this film. Given that the movie revisits key points in time during the events of other movies, it's not difficult to spot the episode's influence, since an element of that episode sent the story back to just before the events of the pilot episode.
In 2024, Feige also noted that Logan was a key influence for this film, with the titular character's death in that film bringing inspiration for Tony's death scene here.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: The deleted scene with the Hulk rescuing people from a building fire was only shown after the credits of the film's re-release, with the only copies of it online being smartphone recordings of the scene uploaded directly to video-sharing sites.
The Russo Brotherssaid that the title of the fourth Avengers film was not mentioned in the dialogue of Infinity War. Cue the first trailer revealing that Endgame is the subtitle, itself derived from a quote from Doctor Strange: "We're in the endgame now". Possibly a case of Flip-Flop of God, as rumors suggested that several titles were up for consideration.
The Russos also said that no characters from the TV shows would appear. Edwin Jarvis makes a cameo.
Angela Bassett said that Shuri survived the Snap. This movie shows that she was in fact killed by it. However, Bassett might have actually just been wrong instead of lying (many of the actors were actually given false information on who lived and who got dusted to minimize the chance for accidental spoilers; for instance, Chadwick Boseman was assured T'Challa survived Infinity War and it wasn't until he watched the movie at the premiere that he learned his character got dusted).
The Russos changed their Instagram profile to reference the "Thanus" meme, in which Ant-Man defeats Thanos by shrinking, going up his backside, and expanding inside him.
Milestone Celebration: This film was released in 2019 — the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Marvel Universe. Considering the decade's worth of characters involved in this film, it is more than appropriate.
In the trailer, Natasha is seen practicing shooting at a target, but this scene is not included in the movie.
A scene with Thor in his Infinity War look holding Stormbreaker and powering up with lightning doesn't appear.
The scene from a trailer where Natasha sits outside of the Avengers compound while it's raining doesn't appear in the movie.
There is a shot of Steve uncharacteristically getting quietly angry that takes place during the support group meeting scene that isn't in the movie.
In the second trailer you can hear Thor saying "I saw all these people die", but he never says it in the actual movie.
In the second trailer, Tony and Steve shake hands after Tony asks "Do you trust me?" and Steve answers "I do." In the movie, they don't shake hands in this scene.
One-Take Wonder: Captain America declaring, "Avengers... assemble" was filmed in a single take. They'd planned to do multiple, including Cap delivering the line much more forcefully, but the Russos were so impressed with the first take that they decided not to bother.
By the time Endgame was released, Peggy Carter's voice actress in that dub on all previous appearances in the MCU, Christine Byrd, had retired (in fact, dubbing Peggy on Agent Carter, Peggy's last proper appearance in the MCU before this film, was Byrd's final dubbing credit). As a result, in this film Peggy is dubbed by Betzabé Jara.
After Alexis Ortega dubbed Spider-Man in his threepreviousappearances in the MCU, Alberto Bernal replaces him in the role in this film.note Ortega in fact hasn't worked in dubbing ever since, and Bernal would also dub Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Far From Home, making this replacement seemingly permanent.
In Agent Carter, Edwin Jarvis was voiced by Dafnis Fernández, but here he is voiced by Jaime Alberto Carrillo, due to both works being dubbed in different studios (specifically, Agent Carter's dub wasn't produced by Disney).
In the Japanese dub, Hiroe Oka voiced Pepper Potts in all of her previous appearances in the MCU. However, she announced her retirement in February 2019 due to spasmodic dysphonia. As such, Pepper is dubbed by Sayaka Kobayashi in Endgame.
Production Posse: Two more Community cast members, Ken Jeong and Yvette Nicole Brown, make cameos as a security guard and a Camp Lehigh secretary, respectively.
Real-Life Relative: Lila Barton is portrayed by Ava Russo, daughter of co-director Joe Russo. Another daughter, Lia, and Anthony Russo's son Julian appear in the scene where a group of children ask Hulk for a selfie. Joe Russo's oldest two children, Sophia and Basil, appear at the memorial scene.
Reality Subtext: Thor is always wearing knit gloves that go up his forearms. This was to hide the seams of the fat suit Chris Hemsworth was wearing without having to rely of VFX.
Refitted for Sequel: The opening scene with the Barton family was originally planned for Infinity War, but then Joe Russo decided to make it this film's first scene. The writers all felt that Hawkeye's character became more dramatically impactful after the snap whereas his arc in IW would have repeated beats from Civil War, i.e. a hero coming out of a 10-Minute Retirement.
Release Date Change: The original release date was May 3, 2019. However, following the success of the opening of Avengers: Infinity War in the last full week of April, Marvel opted to replicate that move here.
The trip to 2012 sees several actors portraying S.H.I.E.L.D and HYDRA agents return to their roles. Most notably, we have Maximiliano Hernández as Jasper Sitwell and Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce.
Rene Russo and Natalie Portman reappear as Frigga and Jane Foster respectively during Thor and Rocket's return to 2013.
Even though the character is CGI, in order for Rocket to be at eye level with the much taller actors surrounding him, most of Rocket's scenes have him standing on tables, chairs, couches, etc. Even at Tony's funeral, he's standing on a stump.
Tony Stark appears to be slightly taller than Scott Lang, in the scene where Clint returns from his successful time travel trip from the past, despite the fact that Robert Downey Jr. is actually shorter than Paul Rudd.
Most of the merchandise depicting War Machine's Mark 6 armor from the final battle (including the Marvel Legends version) got the colors wrong, showing the suit in black and silver instead of red, white and blue. Presumably, the production team's decision to use the Iron Patriot-inspired color scheme in the actual film was only made after the toy companies had already been given reference materials to base their products on.
Likewise, the majority of the action figures based on the Quantum Realm suits had them colored primarily gray/silver instead of white. Like the War Machine issue, this was likely a case of plans for the suits (which were created via CGI in post-production) changing after the toys had already been designed.
There was a draft where at Vormir, Clint made the sacrifice for the Soul Stone instead of Natasha, but several women on the crew objected saying that Natasha should be the one to show her heroism and sacrificial love for Clint and his family.
Kevin Feige initially conceived the ending of this film to culminate in the death of all six original Avengers rather than just Black Widow and Iron Man in the final product. The Russo Brothers objected to this however, as they felt that there wouldn't be enough time in the film to pay tribute to all of them, on top of it being incredibly overwhelming for audiences.
Valkyrie's appearance in the movie was first discovered after someone took a photo of a Valkyrie toy from the movie's official action figure line.
Likewise, even if it was a Foregone Conclusion that most of the dead heroes from Infinity War would be revived, the fact that Hasbro's toy line for the movie included Black Panther, Spider-Man and Star-Lord kind of removed any lingering doubt.
The toy line also spoiled the plot point about the Avengers using Stark technology to create a new Infinity Gauntlet.
Pepper's Rescue armor was also first revealed when a prototype of the Rescue action figure leaked online.
The focus on Thanos showing up primarily in his battle armor and wielding a double-bladed sword was spoiled by multiple toylines. However, most merchandise depicts him with the Infinity Gauntlet to conceal the fact that he's actually a time-traveling past Thanos.
Endgame was Stan Lee's final cameo appearance, as well as Lee Moore's final film role, before their respective deaths in 2018.
This was also the final time Iron-Man's Japanese voice actor, Keiji Fujiwara, would dub the character before dying of cancer in 2020.
Teasing Creator: Mark Ruffalo, known for accidentally spoiling stuff about these movies, went on The Tonight Show to share the title... Which was censored for the broadcast. Following this, he went all-out and described an action sequence which was almost entirely censored while he hammed it up on the stage.
Technical Advisor: The film brought on several doctors and research professors as scientific consultants, including USC physics professor Clifford V. Johnson and CalTech theoretical physicist Sean M. Carroll, in order to create a version of time travel that stayed true to real-life theoretical physics and not like how it is commonly portrayed in popular media, such as Back to the Future.
In the script, Tony performed his Heroic Sacrifice in complete silence. Just a few months before release, the Russos figured that a character known for constantly quipping should say something at that moment (with one suggestion being “you are so fucked”), and it was editor Jeff Ford who had the obvious-in-retrospect idea of making it a retort to Thanos's "I am inevitable" refrain that also tied into the famous final line of the first MCU film.
Also, the line "I love you 3000" was originally written as "Love you tons". You can thank Robert Downey Jr. for the word change, since that is what his children actually say to him in real life.note Which means that the fact that all the Marvel movies total up to 3000 minutes is just an amazing coincidence.
And one more from Downey, while filming the early argument between Tony and Steve, he got so worked up in character that he snapped out an unscripted "Liar!" to everyone’s genuine shock.
When asked about the Nova Corps being in the Final Battle, the Russos went ahead with pointing out that not only are the Novas in there, but they also claim to have included Richard Rider himself...somewhere in the background.
Someone asked the Russos if Hulk hit anyone when he threw the bench. They replied that he hit Frank Castle.
Wag the Director: Thor's new look was only supposed to be a Temporary Bulk Change, but Chris Hemsworth insisted on keeping it throughout the film, thinking it made Thor's arc more interesting for him to portray.
The Downer Ending to Avengers: Infinity War was originally going to be this film's Downer Beginning; had that been the case, Infinity War would have ended with Thanos completing the Infinity Gauntlet before actually using it in this movie. However, the creative teams working on the two films decided that it best suited the story to have the actual Cliffhanger follow the Badass Fingersnap itself and to show its fallout before making viewers wait a year to see how the story would be resolved.
It was executive producer Trinh Tran's idea to kill off Thanos early in the film, assuring the writers that having accomplished his goal to decimate half life in the universe, Thanos had no longer a purpose in life and could die satisfied. To ensure the movie still had a Big Bad for the climax, the Time Heist brought Thanos from the time of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) forward.
Initial versions of the film had more memorials like the Wall of the Vanished in San Francisco erected in every city of the world.
Before showing Captain America's support group, there were some shots filmed on Central Park to show that the Snap also wiped out half of all plant life, depicting Central Park lacking fifty percent of its trees, as confirmed by Word of God back during Infinity War in regards to plant and animal life. Even though that idea is contradicted by Infinity War, as clearly shown when none of the grass or trees in Wakanda dusted.
In one draft, Rhodey would have become Vice President of the United States after the time skip. This was scrapped because, according to co-writer Christopher Markus, "it didn't have any story weight".
The first draft of the script had the characters avoid going back to the events of The Avengers and included Iron Man going with Thor and Rocket to Asgard to collect the Tesseract from Odin's vault (and getting into a fight with Heimdall in the process as the latter would have localized him with his enhanced senses).
When Iron Man and Ant-Man plan to retrieve the Tesseract from the 2012 Avengers, there were plans to feature either Nick Fury or Maria Hill as the one to ask the Avengers to deliver both Loki and the Tesseract. When Robert Redford announced his plans to retire after starring on The Old Man & the Gun, they opted to ask him to reprise the role of Alexander Pierce once more, shooting his appearance in one day — his very last one as an actor, other than the version of himself depicted as the President in Watchmen.
There were plans for the present day Thor to fight his slimmer, more muscular self from Thor: The Dark World during the Asgard sequence, but that battle was dropped in favor of the similar fight between Captain America and his 2012-era self.
Jane Foster was originally going to play the role of the person who pep-talks Thor out of his funk since Natalie Portman was willing to return now, but it was ultimately decided that it would make more sense to give that role to Frigga, since being Thor's mother and it being the point in time where she was to die makes her playing this role much more emotional (which lead to Jane's only scenes in the final film being archived footage from Thor: The Dark World). A scene featuring a conversation between Jane and Rocket was apparently filmed but cut. Though in terms of a major role, Portman was later confirmed to return for Thor: Love and Thunder.
A heist in the Triskelion to get the Tesseract and raiding Doctor Strange's apartment, long before the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Doctor Strange, was also considered, back when the writers were hesitant about revisiting The Avengers but ultimately made logical sense to do it at that point, and also in terms of audience familiarity, leading to their attempt to take the Tesseract directly from SHIELD instead, and Hulk running into the Ancient One (as she had not died yet at the time) to get the Time Stone from her.
The first draft of the script had the Avengers retrieving the Power Stone from Morag long before the events of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), back when Morag was actually flooded, as James Gunn had previously stated in the audio commentary of Guardians that Morag is entirely covered by oceans and the water lowers every three hundred years. Anthony Russo later noted that early on, the sequence may have involved the presence of a "giant sea eel". Instead War Machine and Nebula visited Morag during the opening of Guardians, even knocking out Star-Lord.
According to the film's DVD Commentary, Peggy Carter was not featured in the Camp Lehigh sequence when Captain America and Iron Man traveled back to the 1970s in the first draft of the film, but Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely ultimately opted to include her as her inclusion was lovely.
One version had Captain America as the one to go to Vormir, forcing him and Red Skull to collaborate together so the former could obtain the Soul Stone.
The scene at Vormir was originally was going to be much more action-packed, with Thanos and his army attacking Natasha and Clint partway through. The deleted footage officially released shows the mountain being suddenly attacked by Sakarran Necrocraft, with the two being caught in a losing battle with Thanos' soldiers. Natasha is mortally wounded in the process, and eventually jumps in order to save Clint as Thanos approaches him. This was scrapped in favor of making the scene much more emotional and personal, with Natasha choosing to jump herself as opposed to being under duress.
The Dark Elves from The Dark Worldalmost returned as part of Thanos's army.
At one point, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeelyconsidered having Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne participate in the final battle with their old Ant-Man and Wasp suits. It was scrapped because they feared that their presence would've made the battle a "character orgy".
The final battle was originally going to be longer, with many characters grouping in a "trench" to discuss their battle plan. It ultimately didn't go through since it didn't feel genuine. The scene was still filmed and included as an extra for the film on Disney+.
Originally, Bucky Barnes was going to receive the shield from an older Steve Rogers and become the new Captain America, but it was rejected by Markus since he felt that Steve did not think that Bucky was idealistic enough to carry on the mantle.
There were plans to include the Living Tribunal but was vetoed by Marvel. The Russo Brothers felt that in retrospect, it would not have made sense for him to appear out of nowhere.
Katherine Langford was cast as an older version of Morgan Stark, who would've spoken to Tony in the Soul Stone just before his death, mirroring the scene where Thanos briefly spoke with a child version of Gamora at the end of Infinity War. The scene was deleted after test audiences found it confusing.
In one draft, after discovering the Avenger's plan, past-Thanos traveled to his Earth and wiped it out, along with its Avengers, before traveling to the present day and taunting the present-Avengers with the bodies of their past-selves. In particular, the scene would've had 2014 Cap getting decapitated by Thanos, whose head would've been presented to 2023 Cap to mock him with. This was fortunately left out, but this Thanos escalated the plans of the older one much further (destroy 100% of life and the universe, remake it with him as a god) to make up for this.
One version had the unsnapped Avengers going to the Avengers compound after returning, then the movie would cut to five minutes later and they'd all be eating pizza. McFeely referred to this scene as "terrible".
According to Kevin Feige, one of the scrapped ideas for this movie would've had the Avengers return from the Time Heist, only to find that 2014 Thanos had overtaken 2023 Earth, sitting on a throne of skulls while waiting for them.
Howard the Duck wasn't intended to be featured in the film at all. However, one month ahead the film's release, while checking the finished footage of the Battle of Earth in VFX, the Russo Brothers opined that it would be great to add Howard in the scene and their request was complied.
After filming on Tony Stark's funeral concluded, it was considered to digitally add Cassie Lang on the scene to accompany her father, but as Kevin Feige realized, most of the attendants of the funeral had to be Tony's fellow heroes, so Cassie's inclusion was scrapped despite the presence of the Barton family and Harley Keener.
According to Sean Gunn, an entire battle in the sky was shot as part of the final battle, and would've featured Kraglin wearing (but not using) a fin with a Yakka arrow similar to the one Yondu had in both Guardians of the Galaxy movies (which he had been practicing within a scene of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 after Peter gifted him it before the credits). Kraglin can also be seen with all the Avengers on the ground pre-green screening (he's right behind Hope in this video), but he's digitally replaced by Groot in the movie proper.note Sean Gunn, who plays Kraglin, had previously stood in for Groot for his first scene as a teenager, a credits scene in Vol 2, but normally stands in for Rocket on set.
If the concept art is to be believed, there were plans to have the Hulk rematch Thanos in this film, dealing a significant uppercut to him at one point.
Jeff Ford revealed that Black Panther and Ebony Maw were originally going to have a longer battle with each other, rather than the brief scuffle they had in the final battle. It was ultimately reduced to what it was as to flow better towards the final confrontation between Tony and Thanos.
The artbook reveals a scrapped sequence detailing an alternate death for 2014 Nebula. Instead, 2014 Nebula would've managed to take the Gauntlet during the final battle and attempted to use it to impress her father, as a nod to her status as the True Final Boss in the original comic. However, she would've been unable to withstand the Stones' power and is killed by them, foreshadowing Tony's own death.
Concept art shows that Nakia was supposed to be part of the Amazon Brigade charge during the final battle.
Apparently, Ant-Man was supposed to take on a more proactive role during the final battle, as opposed to taking on a single Leviathan and then being relegated to getting the van running, concept art shows he would've been summoning giant ants to act as biological Humongous Mechas for the heroes to ride upon, with one particular piece of art depicting Rocket, Groot and Doctor Strange using one as an impromptu tank, and another showing him using the giant ants to take down a Leviathan.note He briefly pops out of his hiding place working with Hope on the time portal during the battle, but in his brief moment does not do any of the above.
A reunion between the respective duos of Rocket and Groot, Tony and Pepper, and Hope and Scott involving them giving each other hugs was cut.
Concept art reveals that Ant-Man, Hulk and Spider-Man were supposed to team up to invoke a Fastball Special. Similarly, Peter Quill and Captain America are shown fighting back-to-back, and Groot, Rocket and Spider-Man were supposed to use Spidey's webs and Groot's vines to slingshot Rocket towards the enemy. Hulk and Black Panther were planned to have a similar team-up to take down a Leviathan.
Rather than simply being broken in half, Thanos was supposed to shatter Cap's entire shield.
Another piece of art displays Miek dueling a Chitauri soldier, implying he would've been more than a background character during the final battle.
The old Steve Rogers seen at the end of the movie was initially going to be portrayed by an actual old man, rather than Chris Evans under heavy makeup and VFX. After cycling through three other actors however, it was decided that no one could look like an elder Chris Evans than the man himself, so they scrapped this idea.
A Stinger showing Wanda visiting Vision's dead body in a mortuary drawer was planned as a lead-in for WandaVision, but it was dropped by Kevin Feige. This idea would be repurposed for use in the show itself, albeit with Wanda saying goodbye to Vision at S.W.O.R.D headquarters instead.
In fact, early drafts of Endgame had Wanda survive the Snap and participate more substantially in the Time Heist, while still mourning Vision, but this angle was ultimately dropped because the writers felt that Wanda had gotten enough mileage and story in the Infinity War that giving her something that matched up to that in Endgame was a real challenge.
War Machine originally carried his suit in a giant floating cube while travelling through time.
Though John Slattery was digitally de-aged to reprise his role as Howard Stark during the 1970s sequence, Dominic Cooper had previously expressed interest in reprising his role as the younger Howard, noting he would've loved to interact with Tony at some point.
Thor leaving Earth with the Guardians of the Galaxy wasn't part of the original script, and was only added in during the editing phase.
2014 timeline Thanos and Ebony Maw were able to figure out how to synthesize Pym Particles and subsequently mass-produce them in order to make the jump into the prime timeline.
When Captain America traveled back to the alternate 2014 to return the Soul Stone to Vormir, he met again with Red Skull, but they weren't hostile to each other, as it was Rogers' mission to return the stone while Red Skull's mission was to guard it, adding that Red Skull is no longer the same as he was in Captain America: The First Avenger, with his only purpose now being to guard the Soul Stone.
By traveling back to the 1940s, Captain America created a new branched reality where there were two Captain Americas: the one we met in The First Avenger and another one who was encased in ice. However, the Russos refuse to state what happened in that new timeline, saying that it's a story for another time.
According to Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus, the Snap also affected other dimensions like the Quantum Realm, stating that Ant-Man's survival wasn't because he was trapped there, he was simply lucky.
The Russos stated that Steve was always worthy of Mjölnir, and just didn't pick it up until now because it would have made Thor feel less special. Kevin Feige later confirmed this in an AMA on Reddit as well and Joss Whedon revealed that this was his intention with the party scene back in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
In response to the popular fan theory about Ant-Man entering into Thanos' anus and then expanding himself to make Thanos explode, Christopher Markus revealed that due the strong nature of the Titan species, Ant-Man would have been unable to expand himself and get simply crushed to death against the walls of Thanos' mighty rectum.
Joe Russo stated that upon using the Tesseract to escape custody, the 2012 Loki created a branched new reality in an alternate timeline, and that they don't know if Captain America was able to find Loki upon traveling back to that timeline to deliver back to the Time, the Mind and the Space Stones. This leads into the events of the LokiDisney+ series.
After Spider-Man: Far From Home showed that the un-snapped people were brought back right where they were before, some fans got worried about the implications for the likes of people who were in airplanes at the time. It was then stated that Bruce made sure that everyone who was brought back was in a safe position.
According to a Twitter post by the Russo Brothers, Noobmaster69 is Wong. Prior to this, a favorite fan theory was that he was Deadpool.
According to Kevin Feige, Thanos's use of the gauntlet to wipe out half of all life in the universe is called the Snap - which aligns which what MCU fans have been calling it,note Which is something of a Revision, since most materials were initially pushing the term "Decimation" to refer to it, before changing to "Snap" after the term gained popularity. the use of the gauntlet by Banner to reverse it is identified as the Blip.
According to Jim Starlin, Thanos' double-bladed sword and the twirling motion used to block Iron Man's blasts were shout-outs to the rotors on the Thanoscopter.
The Russos stated in an interview that Richard Rider and the Nova Corps were canonically present for the Battle against Thanos' forces at the end, even though they were never seen on screen.
It was stated that after Captain Marvel's stinger, the Avengers filled Carol in on what had been going on, and from then, she used a tracker given to her (likely by Rocket), in order to find Tony and Nebula in space.
Yvette Nicole Brown has named her character, the woman in the elevator at Camp Lehigh in the 1970s, Phyllis, and Phyllis is a real S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, not a HYDRA agent.
According to Ty Simpkins, it's likely that during the funeral, Harley Keener thought that having been in touch with Tony Stark all those years, he had come to see him not only as a mentor, but as the only father figure he ever had, as Iron Man 3 previously stated that his father left him.
Dave Bautistaopined that though glad that Thanos is no more, Drax possibly felt a bit unsatisfied that he wasn't the one who killed Thanos at the end, yet he anyway honored Tony Stark's sacrifice.
Spider-Man: Far From Home writer Chris McKennaopined that apart from decimating half animal life in the universe, the Snap also affected some of the bacteria in the survivors' digestive systems.
After many years, Star-Lord has returned to his home world of Earth, and aside from attending Tony Stark's funeral, he doesn't seem to have much desire in exploring his old home. James Gunn offered an explanation to this on Twitter by reasoning that Peter refused to stay on Earth longer than he had to due him associating the entire planet with the traumatic memory of his mother's death.
Winston Dukeposted a behind-the-scenes video of M'Baku and Drax teaming up to protect T'Challa as he's running to keep the Infinity Gauntlet away from Thanos. Duke himself believes this scene still happened in canon, even if it wasn't shown on-screen.
And the working title used to hide the production was Mary Lou 2 (Infinity War was titled Mary Lou).
More specifically, arguably the most spoiler-heavy scene in the movie — the funeral of Tony Stark — was listed as "The Wedding" in all the information given to actors until time came to actually film it.
, Tony's funeral was given the production codename "The Wedding". According to Tom Holland during an appearance