Marvel often faces criticism, some of it justified and some exaggerated, but one thing that can’t be denied is that the studio took the cinematic experience to the next level with Avengers: Infinity War in 2018 and Avengers: Endgame a year later. The most epic, deeply satisfying moment of the grand finale was when the worn-out Captain America received reinforcements, but this defining scene wouldn’t have been in the film — at least not in this form — if the director duo, Anthony and Joe Russo, had listened to screenwriter Stephen McFeely.
The three creators are returning to the MCU for the next two Avengers films, and in a joint interview, Joe Russo shared: "There was some debate about perhaps the most famous moment in the Marvel films, when the portals open in Endgame. The original concept was that the camera would spin around Steve Rogers, and everyone would appear behind him. There wasn’t a special entrance for every character, and that caused quite a debate." According to the director, the filmmakers argued for months in the editing room, and although he didn’t want to name names, many from the Marvel team opposed the portal idea. However, the directors were determined to make it happen.
"I remember Anthony and I saying, 'F*ck it, we’re going to do this in the reshoots,'" Russo recalled, then screenwriter McFeely, who co-wrote the Endgame script with Christopher Markus, took responsibility for being one of those who opposed altering the scene. "I thought the first version worked pretty well. I thought it was cool. But Joe is right. One of the lessons from working with them and Marvel is that emotional logic overrides logical logic. This isn’t a loophole. It’s what the film needed. It’s what the audience needed," said the writer, with Anthony Russo adding:
"You can see from this conversation the level of collaboration between us. We were deeply involved in their writing process, and they were equally involved in our work, to the extent that during editing, we all worked together to figure out the final version of the film," said the older Russo, who believes working with this team is incredibly fulfilling. We hope the Russo brothers and McFeely approach the next Avengers films, coming in 2026 and 2027, with the same dedication, and even if it requires some debate, they’ll wrap up the MCU’s currently bumpy multiverse era with a finale as satisfying as the conclusion of the Infinity Saga. (Source: Screenrant)
