Things move pretty quickly in the opening third of Avengers: Endgame. So while the film has much to tell us about the effects of Thanos’ genocidal snap from last year’s Infinity War, it only figures that the movie doesn’t find the time to confirm the fate of each and every MCU regular.
That being said, in the official Endgame screenplay – which was recently released online for awards consideration – we get a short breakdown of some of the Mad Titan’s dusted victims, including a few characters whose whereabouts were left ambiguous in the final film.
The text in question reads as follows:
“A HOLO-DISPLAY ROTATING THROUGH FACES OF PEOPLE WE’VE LOST: WANDA. VISION. BUCKY. T’CHALLA. MARIA HILL.
RHODEY
It’s been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth.
TONY, weak, sits in a hi-tech wheelchair, IV dripping into his arm. He stares, taking in the loss: SAM WILSON. SECRETARY ROSS. SHARON CARTER. SCOTT LANG. HOPE VAN DYNE. HANK PYM. NICK FURY.
At Fury, Carol bites back emotion.
NATASHA
World governments are in pieces, as you can imagine. But the parts that still work are trying to take a census. It looks like he did what he said he was going to do.
JANE FOSTER. ERIK SELVIG. WONG. DR. STRANGE. THE BARTON FAMILY. QUILL. DRAX. MANTIS. GROOT. PETER PARKER.
Finally, Tony looks away. RHODEY turns it off.”
Though a lot of these fallen characters were either seen turning to dust at the end of Infinity War or were among the pictured victims in the theatrical cut of Endgame, there are three exceptions: Jane Foster, Wong and Secretary Ross, all of whom apparently perished without the movie acknowledging their deaths.
Of course, it’s worth remembering that script content isn’t technically canon unless it’s in the actual film, meaning that Marvel could always change their minds about any of these characters if need be. In the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, for instance, they might ultimately decide that Jane Foster went through a personal journey during the five-year time-jump of Avengers: Endgame, lending some context to her emergence as the new Thor.
Then again, perhaps co-writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely had specific reasons for keeping Jane, Wong and Thaddeus Ross out of action for those five years that will be revealed in future projects. Either way, we can expect to learn a lot more about the full repercussions of Thanos’ snap once Marvel’s Phase 4 gets underway next year.
