Jane Foster
Jane Foster never really took off with fans as other Marvel leading ladies have, with the character being unceremoniously dropped from the Thor franchise in Ragnarok (due to a “mutual dumping,” as the God of Thunder put it) to be never seen again. It’s been reported that Natalie Portman fell out with Marvel over creative differences with The Dark World, but that remains unconfirmed.
It was a surprise then when Portman attended Endgame‘s world premiere, fueling theories that she’d be making a shock return as Jane in the film. And return she did, in a small role as Rocket has to take the Aether out of her so that the heroes can add the Reality Stone to their collection. We’ve since learned that this was actually unused footage from TDW, but Portman was required to record a few lines that can be heard when Thor watches Jane from afar.
Joe Russo’s Cameo
The fact that co-director Joe Russo gave himself a cameo in Endgame isn’t a surprise, as he’s had walk-on roles in two of his previous movies, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War. It’s the nature of his cameo here, though, that’s worth mentioning, as it offers us an MCU first that’s long overdue.
Russo appears as part of Cap’s Snap survivors support group, opening up about how he’s just had his first date in five years. It’s casually revealed that his date was a man, thereby making Russo’s part the first explicitly LGBT character in any MCU movie.
The director has explained that he wanted to play this role as a message to other filmmakers that they need to up their game with equal representation in their work. You could argue this minor character is too little too late, but the good news is Kevin Feige has insisted that this is just the beginning, as the franchise is set to have its first gay superhero soon in The Eternals.