Due to the ridiculously long list of things it needed to do, Avengers: Endgame couldn’t feature every single scene the story demanded even with its three-hour runtime. This resulted in fans having a lot of questions about how certain things added up. One that’s often overlooked concerns the use of the Infinity Gauntlet.
In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos is momentarily taken to the Soul World after he snaps his fingers and encounters young Gamora. However, neither Tony or Hulk experience the same thing in Endgame. Well, at least in the finished version of the film.
While in conversation with CinemaBlend alongside co-writer Stephen McFeely, Christopher Markus revealed that one version of the script featured Hulk coming face to face with Bruce Banner once he completed his snap. Though they liked the idea of the two halves conversing, the idea just didn’t survive the many rewrites needed to get the plot as tight as possible.
“We did actually write a version, and this existed before The Ancient One scene was slowly beaten out, but there was a version where it was Banner talking to The Hulk… and we never shot it, but it was kind of a cool thing to get them both on screen together interacting.”
We’ve already learned that Tony Stark would have had his own Soul World moment in Endgame. This one was actually shot, too. As originally planned, Iron Man was to encounter his daughter Morgan as a teenager, as played by Katherine Langford. The sequence would have allowed Tony to get a glimpse at his daughter grown-up and offered him a final moment with her before he died. However, test audiences were confused by the scene so it was ultimately cut.
Fans would have no doubt enjoyed seeing Hulk and Banner interacting though, especially as it’s generally felt that IW and Avengers: Endgame short-changed the character’s arc. The good news is that we’ll likely get more of Ruffalo’s Jade Giant in the She-Hulk TV show, which looks to be something of a backdoor sequel to The Incredible Hulk. Expect it to drop on Disney Plus in 2022.