The Heroic Rat From Avengers: Endgame Was A Real, Trained Animal

Here’s a random piece of MCU trivia for you: The rat that saved the world – nay, the universe – in Avengers: Endgame is a real, trained animal.

Word comes by way of Marvel Entertainment’s visual effects producer Jen Underdahl, who analyzed every frame of Endgame‘s VFX as part of a WIRED featurette. It’s a must-watch for anyone wanting to peek behind the curtain of Marvel’s two-billion-dollar behemoth, which has since gone on to become the highest-grossing movie, well, ever – eclipsing even Avatar at the tip-top of the box office charts.

But for all of Endgame‘s spectacle, there is one practical scene, in particular, that may surprise you: Ant-Man being yanked out of the Quantum Realm in the strangest of circumstances. Turns out that little furry hero was, in fact, real; no CGI trickery was required to render the rat that saved the universe, as Underdahl tells WIRED:

For those of you who are curious, that is not a digital rat. For all the things that we do and for all the things that we replace, that is actually a practical acting rat. I don’t have his name, but he’s really there.

It’s pretty remarkable that directors Joe and Anthony Russo were able to call upon a real, trained rat during the production of Avengers: Endgame, and spare a little CGI manpower for the film’s biggest moments, of which there are a few. It’s by no means the only Marvel-related tidbit tucked away within WIRED’s video featurette, so if you have 20 minutes to spare, pop on the kettle and treat your eyes to a glimpse behind the scenes.

Avengers: Endgame is now available on all major platforms – digital included – which will certainly keep us ticking over until the oncoming release of Black Widow, and with it, the advent of MCU Phase 4.