Avengers: Endgame writers originally didn’t want to have this fan-favorite scene

Avengers: Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely had some thoughts about where the Avengers would go in the movie. They almost left out one location that’s become a fan favorite.

Warning! This story contains major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.

Avengers: Endgame was a movie long in the making. Not just in the literal sense (the writers say it took them around 200 days to film), but in the sense that every movie in the MCU has built up to this.

And despite the film having some amazingly enjoyable scenes, some of those may have turned out a bit different from how we saw them play out on screen. In an interview with The New York Times, Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely revealed there was one scene they grappled with having in the movie — but one that paid off when they finally decided to include it: revisiting the Battle of New York.

For anyone keeping up with pre-Endgame spoilers, it became very obvious that the Avengers would be visiting New York during the events of the first Avengers movie based on set photos. Because of that, the genius idea of going back to 2012 felt like it was always in the plan. But, as the writers pointed out, they originally didn’t like that idea:

"Markus: There were entirely other trips taken. They went to the Triskelion at one point to get the [Tesseract], and then somebody was going to get into a car and drive to Doctor Strange’s house.McFeely: Just saying it out loud, it’s like, what are we doing?Markus: It was when we were trying to avoid going to Avengers because it seemed pander-y.McFeely: We’re not always right.Markus: The obvious ones seemed so obvious that it’s too obvious.McFeely: Eventually, Joe Russo went, why are we going to this movie when we can go to Avengers? Let’s make it work."

Sometimes, the best choice to make really is the simplest choice. And revisiting the Battle of New York makes so much sense. For a movie that wants to bring the Infinity Saga narrative full-circle, why not go back to the beginning? This was the Avenger’s first foray as a team, and it previewed what was to come when heroes get together. Plus, the movie was such a big hit with audiences that the callbacks were guaranteed to be familiar to a majority of the audience.

From that, we got exciting moments like Captain America fighting himself, Smart Hulk pretending to thrash around like his 2012 self, and just a few more scenes with Loki being mischievous.

In place of the Battle of New York, the original plan involved longer scenes with more of the team in Asgard.

"McFeely: In the first draft, we didn’t go back to the [original] Avengers movie. We went back to Asgard. But there’s a moment in the M.C.U., if you’re paying very close attention, where the Aether is there and the Tesseract is in the vault. In that iteration, we were interested in Tony going to Asgard. He had a stealth suit, so he was invisible, and he fought Heimdall, who could see him.Markus: Thor had long scenes with Natalie Portman. And Morag [the planet where Peter Quill finds the Orb] was hugely complicated.McFeely: It was underwater! That was clever but it was just too big a set piece. What that didn’t do is allow for Thanos and his daughters to get on the trail at the right moment. So we went back to when Peter Quill was there. And we realized that when you can punch Quill in the face, it’s hilarious. I still think it’s hilarious."

While we can agree with that last bit about Peter Quill, having the Avengers spend a lot of time on Asgard may not have been the best idea. This would be the pre-Thor: Ragnarok Asgard from one of the MCU’s more mediocre movies. Thor: The Dark World wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t a completely memorable movie for most fans. So why spend so much time going back to that moment? Thankfully, Markus and McFeely changed their minds about that.

Which moment in the MCU timeline would you have liked the Avengers to go back to? Let us know in the comments.