When the team behind Avengers: Endgame announced its running time to be 3 hours long audiences panicked over the idea of holding their bladder. After seeing the movie and exiting the cinema, though, I can bet most of the viewers wouldn’t have minded an even longer feature. Personally, I wanted to see more of the final battle.
(Robert Downey Jr. Gave Chris Evans This Captain America-Inspired Gift After Filming Avengers)
While I will admit I thought it was already great as it was and was perfectly satisfied with all the squeal-worthy moments, I wouldn’t mind a bit more time to shine the spotlight on the different heroes. In an interview with The New York Times, Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely admit that was exactly the original plan.
They explain that there was a grander plan in mind for the final battle. Markus confirms: “We wrote and shot an even much longer battle, with its own three-act structure.” Ultimately, they had to cut it out. It wasn’t cut because of any time limitations but rather because the team felt it didn’t flow quite as well as the final version.
(This Fan Was Rushed to the Emergency Room for Crying Too Hard During ‘Avengers: Endgame’)
McFeely explains:
It didn’t play well, but we had a scene in a trench where, for reasons, the battle got paused for about three minutes and now there’s 18 people all going, “What are we going to do?” “I’m going to do this.” “I’m going to do this.” Just bouncing around this completely fake, fraudulent scene. When you have that many people, it invariably is, one line, one line, one line. And that’s not a natural conversation.
To which Markus adds:
It also required them to find enough shelter to have a conversation in the middle of the biggest battle. It wasn’t a polite World War I battle where you have a moment.
(SPOILERS: ‘Avengers: Endgame’ is the perfect love letter to the last 10 years of the MCU)
Honestly, I would eat up any additional content they give us. I don’t mind if the original version of the final battle is clunkier and awkward — I just want to see Captain America and Bucky get a real moment together. Hopefully, this is something Directors Joe and Anthony Russo are willing to include in a Director’s Cut of Endgame.
What characters would you want to see more of in the final battle?
