In all likelihood, it’ll be a long wait before Marvel delivers another crossover moment as big as the climactic battle of Avengers: Endgame, but while almost every major hero in MCU history plays a role in the final fight, the section still has a few notable absentees.
Though the late Black Widow might be the first name that springs to mind, another curious no-show is Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia, who made her MCU debut in last year’s Black Panther. As it stands, it’s not entirely clear why the character didn’t join her fellow Wakandans for the fight, but going by Andy Park’s concept art from The Art of Avengers: Endgame, the Marvel Studios team at least considered including her while Endgame was in development.
In an illustration for what would eventually become the film’s much talked-about female team-up sequence, Nakia can be seen amidst the crowd of heroines. Given how many big names Endgame managed to employ for roles big and small, it’s strange to think that Marvel stopped short of bringing Nyong’o into the action. But though it may be tempting to speculate that she has a story-based reason for being absent from the fight, perhaps it was just a simple matter of scheduling difficulties.
Regardless, it’s more than likely that Nakia will make a return when Black Panther 2 hits theaters on May 6th, 2022. But first, another significant absentee from the Avengers: Endgame climax finally gets the spotlight to herself when Black Widow comes out on May 1st, 2020. And speaking of major franchise films, you can catch Nyong’o in the role of Maz Kanata when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker arrives in cinemas on December 20th of this year.
