Marvel Studios may have announced their entire slate of movies and television shows that will make up Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at last weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, but people still can’t stop talking about Avengers: Endgame, with the Marvel panel kicking off with the announcement that the epic conclusion to the Infinity Saga had finally managed to topple Avatar and become the biggest movie of all time.
With Endgame set to hit home video this week, some of the key creatives involved in the pic have been revealing plenty of brand new information and co-writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have gone so far as to admit that one of the most memorable lines in the three-hour movie wasn’t even in the original script, but came from co-director Joe Russo.
Before the climactic battle scene, Captain America goes toe-to-toe with Thanos and it seems that his fate is sealed before we hear a familiar voice delivering a familiar line: “On your left.” Sam Wilson repeating the line Cap said to him during their first meeting is both a neat little bit of fan service and the ideal way to reintroduce the dusted Avengers to the battlefield in Steve Rogers’ hour of need, sentiments that Markus completely agrees with.
“We wrote it originally when it was in The Winter Soldier and it’s just so satisfying because it means so much for fans and for Cap. There’s that moment when he’s looking at them when they all come back and he almost smiles because he would shoulder it alone. He was just about to shoulder it alone and get killed. To see people come to his aid after he’s done it so many times is great.”
McFeely added that it brings Cap’s story full circle, but instead of a scrawny kid from Brooklyn that doesn’t like bullies the character is now a legendary hero defending the entire universe from a bully that wiped out billions with a snap of his fingers.
“It’s just the alley scene from the first Captain America writ large. He’s going to stand up to the bully and get his ass kicked constantly and Bucky comes to his rescue and now, everybody comes to his rescue.”
Avengers: Endgame is full of nods and references to the previous twenty-one movies in the Infinity Saga, and it’s fun to hear that Joe Russo came up with one of the most iconic lines in the film, one that goes back five years to both Cap and Sam’s first encounter and his and brother Anthony’s debut in the MCU.
