Those who have already had the chance to watch Avengers: Endgame won’t be forgetting its ending anytime soon. The conclusion to the Infinity Saga (which spans over 20 films) closed the chapter on a handful of storylines and characters, and based on the film’s box office success, it looks like fans were pleased with the Russo brothers as they’ve done right by the Marvel Cinematic Universe fanbase.
Still, Endgame‘s focus on time travel and timeline hops wasn’t the easiest to digest, and fittingly, it looks like the writing team came up with a few different endings as a result. As recently reported by ComicBook.com, director Joe Russo shed some light on the creative process.
“So we wrote alternate endings – obviously to throw people off the scent – or if you have to distribute scripts to people, you want to make sure the information is either redacted or not the true information. So there are many multiple endings.”
Of course, this practice isn’t unheard of. For decades now, Hollywood directors and producers have tackled the problem of keeping plot lines and twist endings under wraps, and as a result, many have turned to alternate endings to keep fans on their toes. While both the Russo brothers and Avengers: Endgame screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely came up with a few different finales, it’s not entirely clear which endings were taken seriously, and which ones were written as red herrings.
One thing’s for certain; Joe Russo confirmed that the team settled on the endings for both Iron Man and Captain America three years ago, well before they started working on the scripts. While most fans seemed to enjoy the tear-jerking conclusion to Endgame, it seems some have taken issue with Captain America’s plotline, with some arguing that it doesn’t perfectly fit with the time travel logic laid out in the film.
In any case, we won’t have to wait too long to see how the Avengers: Endgame will impact the MCU moving forward. Earlier this week, Marvel released a brand new trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home, providing fans with their first glimpse at how the universe is recovering from Thanos’ Snap.