“So no matter what, I promise you, if you need us – if you need me – I’ll be there.”
There’s a moment in Avengers: Infinity War, just as Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian descend on New York City in search of the Time Stone, where a visibly distressed Tony Stark reaches into his pocket to pull out the phone given to him by Steve Rogers (AKA Captain America) at the tail-end of Civil War.
Frankly, it’s the one thing holding their fractured friendship together after the calamitous Marvel showdown of 2016, though it seems Infinity War almost placed Cap and Tony in the same room in order to settle their differences. That’s according to screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who admitted to Yahoo that said scene was cut pretty early on due to the fact that it would’ve taken away from Thanos’ quest – a quest that undoubtedly serves as the lifeblood of Avengers 3.
Our first sort of wonky draft [had] the idea that they had to get back in the same room together and deal with that. [But it] meant that you’re slowing down your Thanos [Infinity] Stones [quest] to deal with other threats from other movies. And that became, as much as we wanted to do, and as many times as we wrote those scenes, it became clear that this movie needed to be propulsive and be about Thanos and what he represented to the Avengers.
Sadly, Avengers: Infinity War didn’t take a moment to publically reconcile Steve and Tony’s friendship, which only leaves us all the more intrigued by Avengers 4. Remember, both Cap and Iron Man were among the few heroes left standing once the credits rolled, meaning it’s now up to Marvel’s OG heroes to save the day come 2019.
Closer to home, Infinity War is currently playing in theaters all across the globe – China notwithstanding – and is expected to tap out at around $1.8 billion. That lifetime cume would result in a fourth-place finish on the list of Hollywood’s highest-grossing movies, behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Titanic and Avatar.
