Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame took copious amounts of planning before they hit theaters. As with any other film of this scale, the scripts undoubtedly went through myriad different versions until the studio was finally satisfied. Now, during a Comic-Con panel held in Hall H, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely pulled back the curtain and gave fans new insight into their creative process.
Via /Film, the writers kicked off their discussion with photos of the whiteboard they used to map out the plot. The board included “baseball cards” of every available MCU character, which they linked to various locations and story beats. The photos shown to the crowd were taken shortly after Comic-Con 2016, when the writers had completed their first draft. Naturally, they toyed with having the heroes find the Infinity Stones in a number of different places. But the biggest surprise came when they revealed that the heroes didn’t revisit the Battle of New York in the initial script. This was an idea that the Russo brothers came up with, and it was subsequently included in newer drafts.
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Additionally, Markus and McFeely shared that another character from the classic Infinity Gauntlet storyline almost appeared in the film. According to ComicBook.com, the Living Tribunal was supposed to show up during the battle against Thanos on Titan. Kevin Feige apparently asked the writers to include “psychedelic visions” inspired by Jim Starlin’s comics. With this, Doctor Strange was originally going to send Thanos into the mindscape and make him confront his past crimes. The Living Tribunal would then judge him accordingly. However, they realized this would distract too much from the actual fight and it was ultimately cut from the script.
The writers also discussed other plot points in their original drafts that they aren’t proud of. For example, they insisted that Thor’s arc “sucked rocks” because they had him fighting a giant serpent to acquire Stormbreaker. Additionally, they considered having Thanos murder all the Avengers in an alternate timeline before squaring off against the team during Endgame’s climactic battle royale.
As he came through the time portal, we would have seen several heroes (most notably Giant Man) lying in a heap of bodies. And if that weren’t morbid enough, the Mad Titan would have even lobbed Captain America’s severed head at his present counterpart’s feet. But of course, they wanted to avoid scarring any youngsters for life.
Are you happy with the changes that Markus and McFeely made to their Avengers scripts? Tell us what you think in the comment section below!
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