Marvel Revealed 11 Secrets From Making Avengers: Endgame
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The Story of Marvel Studios book not only acts as a compendium of the MCU's first 3 phases, but also reveals 11 secrets from making Avengers: Endgame.
Marvel's first official MCU companion book has revealed 11 behind-the-scenes secrets from making Avengers: Endgame. First released on October 19, 2021, The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the first-ever authorized look at making Marvel’s Infinity Saga, beginning with 2008’s Iron Man and ending with 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home. In particular, The Story of Marvel Studios contains swathes of fascinating, behind-the-curtain information on the record-breaking Avengers: Endgame that is now immortalized as the MCU Phase 3's crown jewel to this day.
Compiled by authors Tara Bennett and Paul Terry, The Story of Marvel Studios consists of enlightening interviews with the cast, crew, producers, writers, directors, concept artists, VFX artists, and costume designers that made one of the greatest film sagas in history possible. Much of the book's information acts as a first look at the tendons behind creating the spectacle of the MCU, including technical challenges, behind-the-scenes arguments, and the pressures that accompany presenting one of the greatest cinematic franchises of all time.
Naturally, a large portion of The Story of Marvel Studios centers on the MCU phase 3's crescendo Avengers: Endgame. From Endgame's final battle sequence taking an eye-watering 16 weeks to engineer to hiding Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) funeral scene from the press, The Story of Marvel Studios is a goldmine for previously clandestine MCU information. As a result, here's the best 11 secrets and behind-the-scenes stories Marvel revealed from making Avengers: Endgame.
Endgame's Name Changed Twice During Pre-Production
From the first days of development, both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame were planned together in tandem as a single, continuing storyline designed to close out the MCU phase 3's Infinity Saga. Revealed by The Story of Marvel Studios as an idea first conceived on a Marvel Studios corporate retreat in 2014, Marvel Studios subsequently announced release dates for Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. Endgame, as it is now known, was originally ascribed as Infinity War Part 2, but it quickly became apparent to directors Joe and Anthony Russo that to tell their perfect Infinity Saga ending, these two parts would instead need to be two distinct movies - with the pair eventually deciding that Infinity War would be Thanos' story, while Endgame would bring the franchise back to the original Avengers that began phase 1 of the MCU. As a result, the early title for Endgame was, in fact, Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet, although this too was eventually changed to the iconic Avengers: Endgame released in 2019.
Thanos' Opening Endgame Scene
While creating Endgame's narrative, the writing team came across an early roadblock courtesy of Thanos' (Josh Brolin) power level at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. Having acquired each necessary Infinity Stone and snapped half of the universe's population out of existence, the Russo brothers, Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely (the writing team behind Captain America: Civil War) struggled to find a way to organically bring an overpowered Thanos back into the fray without giving any of the surviving Avengers unnecessary plot armor. Stephen McFeely reveals that it was Endgame's executive producer Trinh Tran who broke the deadlock with his comment, "God, I really wish we could just kill him," which got the writing team abuzz about Thanos' fate. Eventually, it was decided that Thanos allowing himself to die after completing his mission is very "in line" with his character's worldview, resulting in the birth of Endgame's time travel quest as the Avengers realize the Infinity Stones have been destroyed.
Tony Stark's Snack Scenes
In one of Endgame's most hilarious behind-the-scenes reveals, The Story of Marvel Studios confirms that Robert Downey Jr. did in fact engineer many of his early scenes in the movie towards eating when he was hungry. Downey Jr. would often sneak food onto the set from the catering department before proceeding to eat the food mid-scene and using his snacks as props. In essence, Tony Stark's insatiable hunger led to several of Endgame's funniest, wholly improvised one-liners, such as when Stark offers the re-assembled Avengers the food in his hand as they discuss how to re-acquire the Infinity Stones.
"I Love You 3000"
Although technically released as a touching tidbit prior to Marvel Studio's new book release, the story of how the line "I love you 3000" became incorporated into Avengers: Endgame warrants inclusion nonetheless. Following Endgame's five-year time-jump after Thanos' death, Tony Stark is shown married to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and living a reclusive life with their young daughter, Morgan. Throughout the film, Morgan tells her father, "I love you 3000," which is a line close to Robert Downey Jr's heart as something his daughter, Avri Roel Downey, said to him when she was a young child. This adorable line made it into Endgame after Downey Jr. shared this story with the Russo brothers, who chose to incorporate it into the film.
Smart Hulk Was Originally Designed For Infinity War
As first revealed by Marvel president Kevin Feige, The Story of Marvel Studios expands upon how the original vision for Smart Hulk's appearance changed over time and the resources required to facilitate this character revision. Originally, Smart Hulk was designed to appear during Infinity War's defense of Wakanda in Bruce Banner's greatest hour of need. As the Wakandan defenses become overrun, Banner was to find himself beset by Cull Obsidian, with Hulk refusing to transform and help him. Banner and Hulk were then originally written to reach a heat-of-the-moment compromise, with Smart Hulk subsequently bursting out of the Hulkbuster armor and defeating Obsidian. However, as Feige explains, this small victory in the context of Infinity War's crushing third-act defeat would have felt like a "weird success." As a result, this last-minute change required a great deal of scrambling by the Marvel Studios' VFX teams, who were essentially forced to remove Smart Hulk from each subsequent Wakanda scene in Infinity War and replace him with an unchanged Bruce Banner to complete scene audiences know today.
Robert Downey Jr. Was The Only Cast Member Given The Full Script For Avengers: Endgame
In typical Tony Stark fashion, Robert Downey Jr. became the only Endgame cast member to work with a full script for the entirety of the filming process, with each other actor given their scenes only to prevent premature leaks and spoilers for this highly anticipated cinematic event. Incredibly, Downey Jr. was actually pitched his ultimate character arc prior to renewing his Marvel contract for Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, with Feige and company keen to get their original MCU hero on board with their vision.
As Anthony Russo recalls: "We did pitch Robert his arc because he kicked off the entire MCU. The Tony Stark arc is the longest and perhaps fullest in the MCU. Once we decided we wanted this kind of ending for the character, we certainly wanted to make sure Robert was comfortable with it, just because of his enormous contribution to the MCU. We did pitch it out." Tony Stark's final act completes his arc from selfish arms dealer to quite literally the universe's savior, meaning Marvel needed a fully committed Downey Jr. to deliver on this most heartbreaking of Endgame narratives. Ultimately, Downey Jr. agreed to the arc and accepted the closing vision of the MCU's phase 3, with the Iron Man actor subsequently becoming the only MCU actor to receive the Endgame script in its entirety over the course of filming.
Natalie Portman Did Not Film Any Scenes For Avengers: Endgame
Despite a brief cameo for Jane Foster in Avengers: Endgame, Natalie Portman's appearance was created entirely using archival footage leftover from Thor: The Dark World. As one of the earliest MCU characters and the person responsible for allying Thor with Earth, Portman's lack of presence on the Endgame set is quite remarkable, considering the wealth of talent Endgame pulled in for its cause. The Story of Marvel Studios reveals, however, that Portman's true return was always destined to be as Mighty Thor in a later MCU phase, which is now confirmed to be during Thor: Love and Thunder's release in 2022.
The Final Battle In Avengers: Endgame
In an awesome spectacle befitting of the end of a cinematic era, the final battle in Avengers: Endgame sees almost every surviving MCU hero do battle with the Mad Titan Thanos' forces on Earth. The scope, planning, and collaborative effort needed to create this mostly CG'd final battle cannot be understated, with The Story of Marvel Studios stating that a whopping 1,400 visual effects artists from multiple effects studios, including WETA, were brought in to create this scene. The time frame given to complete Endgame's final battle was a mere 16 weeks, which is more staggering when placed in the context that Infinity War and Endgame took almost a combined three years to film and edit. The end result, however, is nonetheless spectacular, with Endgame able to showcase every MCU hero in one of the most memorable Marvel battles of all time.
"I Am Iron Man"
During Endgame's climax, Iron Man manages to wrestle the Infinity Stones from Thanos before snapping his fingers and saying the iconic line "I am Iron Man" that brings the first three MCU phases full circle. Yet the Endgame scene originally filmed, Downey Jr.'s Iron Man stays silent as he snaps his fingers, saving the world and sacrificing his life one last time. However, in post-production, the Russo brothers both agreed that Tony Stark needed to have one final line, but the pair were unable to envision a final tagline for him that did not translate as corny in the emotional context of the scene.
In the Russo brother's words, Tony Stark is a man who "had lived and died by quips," so the pair were elated when their editor Jeff Ford reportedly said during a meeting, "Why don’t we just go full circle with it and say I am Iron Man." Having found their perfect ending line, the Russo brothers then brought the edited idea to Downey Jr, who, anecdotally, was convinced by his long-time friend and Endgame producer Joel Silver to reshoot the scene with the iconic "I am Iron Man" line included. This new scene was shot in January 2019, mere months before the film’s release that made it the last scene ever filmed for Avengers: Endgame. In a final, poignant, and serendipitous twist, the scene had to be filmed at Raleigh Studios due to a lack of soundstage availability, which is adjacent to the stage where Downey Jr. first auditioned to play Iron Man a decade prior.
Tony's Daughter
While it is hard to imagine a better, more redemptive ending for Tony Stark, his character did originally have one last scene to command in the unedited version of Avengers: Endgame. An entire sequence was shot featuring 13 Reasons Why's Katherine Langford as Tony’s daughter from the future that was eventually discarded due to its jarring nature. At its core, the idea was to have Tony enter the same metaphysical waystation that Thanos experienced when performing his own snap, whereby Tony would converse with an adult version of his daughter to give his character closure and peace as his soul moves on. Yet ultimately, the Russo brothers felt introducing a new character so suddenly would detract from the impact and nobility of Tony's death, as well as confuse audiences, meaning Langford's Endgame turn was instead relegated to a bonus deleted scene that can be accessed via Disney+ to date.
Hiding Tony's Funeral Scene
According to The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, by far the most challenging day of filming on Avengers: Endgame arrived courtesy of Tony's funeral scene. Dubbed by the Marvel production's crews as “The Wedding” to avoid leaks surrounding Tony's character death, this scene contained every MCU phase 3 hero in the flesh (unlike the CG'd final battle), making it the single largest gathering of A-list actors in Marvel history. Furthermore, the shoot coincided with the official photoshoot for Marvel Studios’ 10th anniversary, with stunning photos from The Story of Marvel Studios showing every MCU actor gathered at their Atlanta, Georgia studio for the most poignant and historic of on-set days while filming Avengers: Endgame.
#MovieReview #scifi
Marvel's first official MCU companion book has revealed 11 behind-the-scenes secrets from making Avengers: Endgame. First released on October 19, 2021, The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the first-ever authorized look at making Marvel’s Infinity Saga, beginning with 2008’s Iron Man and ending with 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home. In particular, The Story of Marvel Studios contains swathes of fascinating, behind-the-curtain information on the record-breaking Avengers: Endgame that is now immortalized as the MCU Phase 3's crown jewel to this day.
Compiled by authors Tara Bennett and Paul Terry, The Story of Marvel Studios consists of enlightening interviews with the cast, crew, producers, writers, directors, concept artists, VFX artists, and costume designers that made one of the greatest film sagas in history possible. Much of the book's information acts as a first look at the tendons behind creating the spectacle of the MCU, including technical challenges, behind-the-scenes arguments, and the pressures that accompany presenting one of the greatest cinematic franchises of all time.
Naturally, a large portion of The Story of Marvel Studios centers on the MCU phase 3's crescendo Avengers: Endgame. From Endgame's final battle sequence taking an eye-watering 16 weeks to engineer to hiding Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) funeral scene from the press, The Story of Marvel Studios is a goldmine for previously clandestine MCU information. As a result, here's the best 11 secrets and behind-the-scenes stories Marvel revealed from making Avengers: Endgame.
Endgame's Name Changed Twice During Pre-Production
From the first days of development, both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame were planned together in tandem as a single, continuing storyline designed to close out the MCU phase 3's Infinity Saga. Revealed by The Story of Marvel Studios as an idea first conceived on a Marvel Studios corporate retreat in 2014, Marvel Studios subsequently announced release dates for Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. Endgame, as it is now known, was originally ascribed as Infinity War Part 2, but it quickly became apparent to directors Joe and Anthony Russo that to tell their perfect Infinity Saga ending, these two parts would instead need to be two distinct movies - with the pair eventually deciding that Infinity War would be Thanos' story, while Endgame would bring the franchise back to the original Avengers that began phase 1 of the MCU. As a result, the early title for Endgame was, in fact, Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet, although this too was eventually changed to the iconic Avengers: Endgame released in 2019.
Thanos' Opening Endgame Scene
While creating Endgame's narrative, the writing team came across an early roadblock courtesy of Thanos' (Josh Brolin) power level at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. Having acquired each necessary Infinity Stone and snapped half of the universe's population out of existence, the Russo brothers, Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely (the writing team behind Captain America: Civil War) struggled to find a way to organically bring an overpowered Thanos back into the fray without giving any of the surviving Avengers unnecessary plot armor. Stephen McFeely reveals that it was Endgame's executive producer Trinh Tran who broke the deadlock with his comment, "God, I really wish we could just kill him," which got the writing team abuzz about Thanos' fate. Eventually, it was decided that Thanos allowing himself to die after completing his mission is very "in line" with his character's worldview, resulting in the birth of Endgame's time travel quest as the Avengers realize the Infinity Stones have been destroyed.
Tony Stark's Snack Scenes
In one of Endgame's most hilarious behind-the-scenes reveals, The Story of Marvel Studios confirms that Robert Downey Jr. did in fact engineer many of his early scenes in the movie towards eating when he was hungry. Downey Jr. would often sneak food onto the set from the catering department before proceeding to eat the food mid-scene and using his snacks as props. In essence, Tony Stark's insatiable hunger led to several of Endgame's funniest, wholly improvised one-liners, such as when Stark offers the re-assembled Avengers the food in his hand as they discuss how to re-acquire the Infinity Stones.
"I Love You 3000"
Although technically released as a touching tidbit prior to Marvel Studio's new book release, the story of how the line "I love you 3000" became incorporated into Avengers: Endgame warrants inclusion nonetheless. Following Endgame's five-year time-jump after Thanos' death, Tony Stark is shown married to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and living a reclusive life with their young daughter, Morgan. Throughout the film, Morgan tells her father, "I love you 3000," which is a line close to Robert Downey Jr's heart as something his daughter, Avri Roel Downey, said to him when she was a young child. This adorable line made it into Endgame after Downey Jr. shared this story with the Russo brothers, who chose to incorporate it into the film.
Smart Hulk Was Originally Designed For Infinity War
As first revealed by Marvel president Kevin Feige, The Story of Marvel Studios expands upon how the original vision for Smart Hulk's appearance changed over time and the resources required to facilitate this character revision. Originally, Smart Hulk was designed to appear during Infinity War's defense of Wakanda in Bruce Banner's greatest hour of need. As the Wakandan defenses become overrun, Banner was to find himself beset by Cull Obsidian, with Hulk refusing to transform and help him. Banner and Hulk were then originally written to reach a heat-of-the-moment compromise, with Smart Hulk subsequently bursting out of the Hulkbuster armor and defeating Obsidian. However, as Feige explains, this small victory in the context of Infinity War's crushing third-act defeat would have felt like a "weird success." As a result, this last-minute change required a great deal of scrambling by the Marvel Studios' VFX teams, who were essentially forced to remove Smart Hulk from each subsequent Wakanda scene in Infinity War and replace him with an unchanged Bruce Banner to complete scene audiences know today.
Robert Downey Jr. Was The Only Cast Member Given The Full Script For Avengers: Endgame
In typical Tony Stark fashion, Robert Downey Jr. became the only Endgame cast member to work with a full script for the entirety of the filming process, with each other actor given their scenes only to prevent premature leaks and spoilers for this highly anticipated cinematic event. Incredibly, Downey Jr. was actually pitched his ultimate character arc prior to renewing his Marvel contract for Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, with Feige and company keen to get their original MCU hero on board with their vision.
As Anthony Russo recalls: "We did pitch Robert his arc because he kicked off the entire MCU. The Tony Stark arc is the longest and perhaps fullest in the MCU. Once we decided we wanted this kind of ending for the character, we certainly wanted to make sure Robert was comfortable with it, just because of his enormous contribution to the MCU. We did pitch it out." Tony Stark's final act completes his arc from selfish arms dealer to quite literally the universe's savior, meaning Marvel needed a fully committed Downey Jr. to deliver on this most heartbreaking of Endgame narratives. Ultimately, Downey Jr. agreed to the arc and accepted the closing vision of the MCU's phase 3, with the Iron Man actor subsequently becoming the only MCU actor to receive the Endgame script in its entirety over the course of filming.
Natalie Portman Did Not Film Any Scenes For Avengers: Endgame
Despite a brief cameo for Jane Foster in Avengers: Endgame, Natalie Portman's appearance was created entirely using archival footage leftover from Thor: The Dark World. As one of the earliest MCU characters and the person responsible for allying Thor with Earth, Portman's lack of presence on the Endgame set is quite remarkable, considering the wealth of talent Endgame pulled in for its cause. The Story of Marvel Studios reveals, however, that Portman's true return was always destined to be as Mighty Thor in a later MCU phase, which is now confirmed to be during Thor: Love and Thunder's release in 2022.
The Final Battle In Avengers: Endgame
In an awesome spectacle befitting of the end of a cinematic era, the final battle in Avengers: Endgame sees almost every surviving MCU hero do battle with the Mad Titan Thanos' forces on Earth. The scope, planning, and collaborative effort needed to create this mostly CG'd final battle cannot be understated, with The Story of Marvel Studios stating that a whopping 1,400 visual effects artists from multiple effects studios, including WETA, were brought in to create this scene. The time frame given to complete Endgame's final battle was a mere 16 weeks, which is more staggering when placed in the context that Infinity War and Endgame took almost a combined three years to film and edit. The end result, however, is nonetheless spectacular, with Endgame able to showcase every MCU hero in one of the most memorable Marvel battles of all time.
"I Am Iron Man"
During Endgame's climax, Iron Man manages to wrestle the Infinity Stones from Thanos before snapping his fingers and saying the iconic line "I am Iron Man" that brings the first three MCU phases full circle. Yet the Endgame scene originally filmed, Downey Jr.'s Iron Man stays silent as he snaps his fingers, saving the world and sacrificing his life one last time. However, in post-production, the Russo brothers both agreed that Tony Stark needed to have one final line, but the pair were unable to envision a final tagline for him that did not translate as corny in the emotional context of the scene.
In the Russo brother's words, Tony Stark is a man who "had lived and died by quips," so the pair were elated when their editor Jeff Ford reportedly said during a meeting, "Why don’t we just go full circle with it and say I am Iron Man." Having found their perfect ending line, the Russo brothers then brought the edited idea to Downey Jr, who, anecdotally, was convinced by his long-time friend and Endgame producer Joel Silver to reshoot the scene with the iconic "I am Iron Man" line included. This new scene was shot in January 2019, mere months before the film’s release that made it the last scene ever filmed for Avengers: Endgame. In a final, poignant, and serendipitous twist, the scene had to be filmed at Raleigh Studios due to a lack of soundstage availability, which is adjacent to the stage where Downey Jr. first auditioned to play Iron Man a decade prior.
Tony's Daughter
While it is hard to imagine a better, more redemptive ending for Tony Stark, his character did originally have one last scene to command in the unedited version of Avengers: Endgame. An entire sequence was shot featuring 13 Reasons Why's Katherine Langford as Tony’s daughter from the future that was eventually discarded due to its jarring nature. At its core, the idea was to have Tony enter the same metaphysical waystation that Thanos experienced when performing his own snap, whereby Tony would converse with an adult version of his daughter to give his character closure and peace as his soul moves on. Yet ultimately, the Russo brothers felt introducing a new character so suddenly would detract from the impact and nobility of Tony's death, as well as confuse audiences, meaning Langford's Endgame turn was instead relegated to a bonus deleted scene that can be accessed via Disney+ to date.
Hiding Tony's Funeral Scene
According to The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, by far the most challenging day of filming on Avengers: Endgame arrived courtesy of Tony's funeral scene. Dubbed by the Marvel production's crews as “The Wedding” to avoid leaks surrounding Tony's character death, this scene contained every MCU phase 3 hero in the flesh (unlike the CG'd final battle), making it the single largest gathering of A-list actors in Marvel history. Furthermore, the shoot coincided with the official photoshoot for Marvel Studios’ 10th anniversary, with stunning photos from The Story of Marvel Studios showing every MCU actor gathered at their Atlanta, Georgia studio for the most poignant and historic of on-set days while filming Avengers: Endgame.
#MovieReview #scifi
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