SPOILER ALERT: This post discusses all the major plot points of Avengers: Endgame. Who lives who dies, who tells their stories.
Screenwriters are the unsung heroes of the film and television industry. While a select few get name recognition (usually the writer-directors) screenwriters stay mostly under the radar, which is surprising when you consider that none of our favorite series and films would exist without them.
Case in point: Avengers: Endgame is easily the most talked about film right now, but how many people can name the writers behind the massively successful film? Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are said writers, who have been Marvel mainstays for several years. The duo wrote all three Captain America films, Thor: The Dark World, and Infinity War.
In a new interview with the New York Times, the duo discuss planning out the ending of the Marvel saga, and several of the ideas they went through before landing on the final version of the film.
Markus and McFeely had the unenviable task of wrapping up 22 films worth of stories and character arcs in one satisfying conclusion. They also had to figure out how to incorporate new characters like Captain Marvel and Black Panther, before either film was released. The duo chose to focus on the original six Avengers, as they were wrapping up the story of the old guard, in particular, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.
Markus said, “We knew we wanted to see Cap and Tony dealing with the aftermath so that you could really see them suffer, quite frankly. And that’s why Cap and Natasha are relatively minimal in the first movie, because all they’d be doing is punching. We knew that they had a lot of story in the second movie, and there were other people who would have much more story in the first movie, like the Guardians.”
They also discussed their reasoning behind the controversial Fat Thor storyline, with McFeely saying “Chris and I wrote a master document while we were shooting Civil War, and one of the things we were interested in exploring is, remember the What If comics? Well, this is our what if. If you lost, Thor becomes fat. Natasha becomes a shut-in. Steve becomes depressed. Tony gets on with his life. Hulk is a superhero.”
Markus followed up with, “Clint becomes a murdering maniac. When we were spitballing for Endgame, we started with, Thor’s on a mission of vengeance. And then we were like, he was on a mission of vengeance in the last movie. This is all this guy ever does! And fails, all the time. Let’s drive him into a wall and see what happens.”
McFeely chimed in, “He just got drunk and fat.”
The duo scrapped several ideas, including introducing the Living Tribunal during the battle against Thanos on Titan. They also discussed a version of the film where Hawkeye, not Black Widow, dies to retrieve the Soul Stone. McFeely said of the alternate version, “There was, for sure. Jen Underdahl, our visual effects producer, read an outline or draft where Hawkeye goes over. And she goes, ‘Don’t you take this away from her.’ I actually get emotional thinking about it.” Markus agreed, saying, “And it was true, it was him taking the hit for her. It was melodramatic to have him die and not get his family back. And it is only right and proper that she’s done.”
The writers also recognize why fans would be upset with Natasha’s death, and the short shrift her grieving gets. McFeely justified Natasha’s sacrifice, saying “Her journey, in our minds, had come to an end if she could get the Avengers back. She comes from such an abusive, terrible, mind-control background, so when she gets to Vormir and she has a chance to get the family back, that’s a thing she would trade for. The toughest thing for us was we were always worried that people weren’t going to have time to be sad enough. The stakes are still out there and they haven’t solved the problem. But we lost a big character — a female character — how do we honor it? We have this male lens and it’s a lot of guys being sad that a woman died.”
While many fans have (rightfully) complained that Natasha didn’t get the heroic funeral that Tony Stark did, there was a reason behind that too. According to Markus, “Tony gets a funeral. Natasha doesn’t. That’s partly because Tony’s this massive public figure and she’s been a cipher the whole time. It wasn’t necessarily honest to the character to give her a funeral.” Agree to disagree, guys.
The entire interview is fascinating and well worth the read. What do you wish Markus and McFeely did differently with Endgame? Share your “What Ifs” in the comments.
(via The New York Times, image: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
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