Now that Avengers: Endgame has made its way to television, it seems that one of the film’s most heavily quoted and meme-able jokes has been edited out in order to keep things family-friendly.
Apparently, while a recent broadcast of the Avengers: Infinity War sequel kept in most of the violence – including the scene where Thanos loses his arm and his head – much of the strong language was left out, along with all mentions of Steve Rogers’ posterior.
Those who saw the film in theaters will probably remember the mid-movie banter between Earth’s Mightiest Heroes about Captain America’s ass. It all starts with Tony Stark remarking that Steve’s 2012 costume did no favors for his rear end, before Scott Lang comes to Cap’s defense, declaring his behind to be “America’s ass.”
The line later gets a callback when present-day Cap looks down at the unconscious body of his past self and comments, “That is America’s ass.” It’s a moment that had audiences cheering in theaters across the world last year, but now it sounds like TV viewers at home will just have to appreciate Steve’s figure without the quippy commentary.
In an interview last October with SYFY WIRE, Avengers: Endgame co-writer Christopher Markus explained how the joke developed over time. At first, the plan was for Iron Man to only acknowledge Cap’s ass in a quick one-liner about his costume, but eventually, Ant-Man’s retort was also added in. It was only during reshoots that Chris Evans himself was given the opportunity to admire his own posterior on-camera.
Jump to 2020, and Steve is now out of the game, but we’ll find out if Sam Wilson and his ass can live up to their respective predecessors when The Falcon and the Winter Soldier comes to Disney Plus later this year.
