Marvel really pulled out all the stops when it came to the culmination of 10 years worth of storytelling.

Well, the movie could have been very different if certain scenes weren’t cut from it. 

1. Tony Stark was to interact with Morgan the same way Thanos had spoken to Gamora after snapping his fingers. 

Originally, Tony was supposed to talk to a teenage Morgan, played by Katherine Langford in a metaphysical word, the same way Thanos did with a young Gamora. 

The Russos, in an appearance on the HappySadConfused podcast, said:

There was an idea that we had that Tony was going to go into the metaphysical way station that Thanos goes in when he snapped his fingers. And that there was going to be a future version of his daughter in that way station. 

But the scene was cut after test audiences appeared confused by it. 

2. Thor and Hawkeye had their roles reversed in Endgame. 

In the film, both Thor and Hawkeye have the worst reaction to the snap. Hawkeye becomes a murderous lunatic while Thor becomes a raging alcoholic. 

But the initial idea was to make Thor into a murderous lunatic. Writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely spoke about the decision to change that and said: 

When we were spitballing for Endgame, we started with – Thor’s on a mission of vengeance. And then we were like, he was on a mission of vengeance in the last movie. This is all this guy ever does! And fails, all the time. Let’s drive him into a wall and see what happens.

3. Black Widow was supposed to head an organisation that took care of all the orphaned children. 

In an interview with Slate, Anthony and Joe Russo said that she had a more emotional and personal job after the snap.  

One-quarter of all children have no parents… So that’s a lot of global orphans… I believe at one point really early in development, Black Widow was actually leading the organization in DC that was in charge of orphans.

-The Russos

But this idea proved to be too large for The Russos ‘to wrangle’. 

4. The smart Hulk was supposed to be introduced in Avengers: Infinity War.

Originally Professor Hulk was supposed to have appeared in Infinity War but The Russos didn’t think that the time was right. 

There was a time when Banner became Smart Hulk in the first movie. It was a lot of fun, but it came at the wrong moment. It was an up, right when everyone else was down.

-The Russos

Even after switching the movie, they were unsure about how to do the big reveal. Ultimately, they went with the restaurant scene with Ant-Man. 

5. Thor tries to kiss Valkyrie. 

He had this beat with Valkryie where after he sort of turns over the kingdom to her, she puts her arm on his shoulder and he sort of starts to lean in for a kiss. And she goes, ‘What are you doing?’ And he goes, ‘Oh I thought the touch..’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s a goodbye touch. A tap I’m giving you.

-Anthony Russo

6. Thanos snaps his fingers in Endgame, not Infinity War. 

The Mad Titan had snapped his fingers at the end of Infinity War and turned half the universe to dust. But originally, he wasn’t supposed to do that. 

But according to one of the screenwriters, Christopher Markus, that would have felt like jerking the fans around instead of having a definitive end. 

If you had stopped it before he snapped his fingers, or with four Stones, that really is just a pause button. That really is just going, What’s he going to do? Will your hero stop dangling from the cliff? And we wanted to be much more definitive.

7. Thor was supposed to fight his 2013 self. 

Apparently, in the earlier drafts, Thor was supposed to fight his former self instead of Captain America.

Given that we saw 2012 Cap being stronger than 2023 Cap, it would have been quite a fight between the long-haired 2013 Thor and 2023’s Lebowski Thor. 

8. Tony Stark was meant to go to Asgard. 

According to the first draft of Endgame’s script, Tony Stark was meant to go to Asgard in a stealth suit instead of revisiting the Battle of New York in 2012. 

Tony would have been invisible due to his stealth suit but would eventually fight with Heimdall who could obviously see him. 

9. A conversation scene amidst the final battle was supposed to take place. 

Markus said the last battle was a ‘three-act scene’ and characters were supposed to just stand there and talk about what they were going to do. But it was cut as it felt inorganic. 

10. The Morag scene with Peter Quill, War Machine and Nebula was meant to be an underwater scene. 

The underwater scene would have been cool but it would have made the scene very complicated as it wouldn’t have allowed Thanos and his daughters to get on Nebula’s trail. 

Also, Markus felt that watching Quill getting punched in the face by War Machine was hilarious. 

11. There wasn’t supposed to be an ‘I’m Iron Man’ moment at the end. 

This scene wasn’t in the original script. But the Russos felt that it felt incomplete. 

Tony used to not say anything in that moment. And we were in the editing room going, ‘He has to say something. This a character who has lived and died by quips.’ And we just couldn’t. We tried a million different last lines. 

-The Russos

12. The Living Tribunal was supposed to join the MCU. 

The Living Tribunal is an all-powerful cosmic entity with three heads acting as a judge over other all-powerful cosmic beings such as Death and Eternity.

However, Stephen McFeely felt that it didn’t fit in as Endgame was already a very busy film. 

It would indicate a whole different level of architecture to the universe and I think that was too much to just throw in.

-Stephen McFeely

13. Hawkeye sacrifices himself instead of Black Widow in Vormir. 

In the original script, it was Hawkeye who defeats Black Widow and jumps down the cliff, but Jen Underdahl, Endgame’s visual effects producer read the draft and told the makers to not take that away from Black Widow. 

Now imagine all these things in the film. We would have been watching an entirely different movie. And hey, I, for one, want to see an angry murderous Thor.