When Avengers: Endgame was officially announced as the title for the fourth Avengers movie in December, fans immediately noticed that this was a term woven through past films featuring Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Obviously, Doctor Strange says “we’re in the endgame” in the recent Infinity War, but Tony Stark also used the word back in 2015’s Age of Ultron, too.
Now, Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr. has referenced this first usage of the term in the MCU by sharing screenshots from the Ultron moment on his official Facebook page. It’s his caption for the post that’ll raise eyebrows, though, as the star wrote: “Look how sneaky we are…”
This kind of suggests that the title of Avengers 4 has been in the planning for years, but could that actually be the case? Well, the first thing to point out is that Ultron came from writer/director Joss Whedon while IW and Endgame were helmed by the Russo brothers, with Whedon no longer actively working at Marvel. So, it’s unlikely there was too much of a longterm plan there.
It’s more probable that writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely noticed how Tony describes whatever sent the Chitauri to Earth as the “endgame” in the previous sequel and, this being Thanos, they decided it would make a perfect title for Avengers 4.
Interestingly enough, though, a clip from the Ultron press tour resurfaced online recently which sees Downey Jr. using the term “endgame” again to describe Stark’s ultimate goals to ensure the planet is safe and to live a normal life. So maybe there was more discussion about the importance of the term behind the scenes of Marvel HQ that we haven’t been told about?
Either way, Avengers: Endgame is definitely the best title for the movie, as it gets across the high stakes going into what’s being called the grand finale of the first decade of the MCU, and we’ll get to see just how the team saves the day when the film opens on April 26th.
