Though we all know everything worked out in the end, Thanos’ snap at the climax of Avengers: Infinity War was a truly memorable cinematic moment. Personally, I’ll always remember the little kid sat in the cinema near me bawling his eyes out as his favorite heroes collapsed into small piles of grey dust.
Fan theories kicked into action immediately, of course, most of them centering on the main survivors being the iconic team from The Avengers. At the time, most assumed that this was done to put our attention back onto the core six heroes. After all, Infinity War was a plate-spinning act that encompassed a ridiculous number of characters, each with various motivations and plot arcs to develop. Somehow the Russo brothers pulled it off, though there were grumblings that favorites like Iron Man and Captain America didn’t have much to do.
Now, during a quarantine watch party, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have confirmed that this was indeed their plan, saying that they always intended for Endgame to be a finale and an ode to the Phase 1 heroes.
Largely, yes. -CM #Infinitywar #QuarantineWatchParty https://t.co/SCJ6uutnof
— ComicBook.com (@ComicBook) April 27, 2020
This lines up with what Kevin Feige said last year in an interview with Empire Magazine as well, which was as follows:
“People would point out that that Cap wasn’t in Infinity War a whole lot. And Iron Man didn’t really speak for that last half hour because of what was going on. But those characters, and all of the original six, are very much the focus of Endgame in a very personal and emotional way.”
Both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame are monuments to the success of the MCU project. If nothing else, they show that planning out a story before you begin telling it is how you tell a satisfying tale (Lucasfilm take note…). It’ll probably be another decade before the studio attempts something on this scale again, but let’s hope that when Galactus inevitably sets his sight on Earth, they’ll remember what made the Infinity Saga work so well.
