Despite it’s near three hour run-time there’s still plenty of footage from Avengers: Endgame that we still haven’t seen. We’re not saying there’s a directors cut out there. But there are plenty of alternate takes and tweaks made after early cuts were shown to test audiences.
Now editors Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Schmidt have shed some light on some of the key aspects of the movie which differ from earlier cuts.
On returning to Avengers: Assemble:
“The script had us showing up right when Tony flies through the Leviathan and blows it up from the inside,” Ford explains. “But when we screened it for audiences in test screenings we realized it took a few minutes for them to acclimate themselves. It wasn’t landing the way we wanted. So we tried other versions.”
One cut sequence saw them show up at the moment Hulk smashes Loki but it was eventually decided that the scene where they assembled made most sense. “The version that won was where we come in on the Avengers first assembling, the round-a-round shot,” Ford adds. “It was the cleanest and most epic transition back into ‘Avengers 1.'”
On an alternate version of the death of Black Widow:
“On script and what we first shot was an excellent scene,” Schmidt reveals. “Thanos and his soldiers show up on Vormir and a small battle ensues between them and Natasha and Clint. Natasha decides to run off the cliff. Clint tries to stop her while also fending off the attack.”
“It was reshot to make it more intimate between Clint and Natasha, which fully worked in the end version of the movie. We just came up with a better idea, something that serviced Natasha a little bit more.”
On being credited with the idea for “I am Iron Man” moment.
“We shot it in a couple of different ways in the initial shoot with different lines of dialogue. Robert [Downey Jr.] also does an improvisation. We did some where he’s just silent and one of those was our favorite for a long time. But we decided Thanos needed a moment at the end of the movie where he says something. We thought there’s this structure of the movie where Thanos says he’s inevitable — he says it in the beginning of the movie and he sees himself say it in the middle of the movie. So we thought this could create this incredible symmetry if we carried that moment forward.”
There’s plenty more quotes from Ford and Schmidt over on ComicbookMovie.com.
After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War (2018), the universe is in ruins due to the efforts of the Mad Titan, Thanos. With the help of remaining allies, the Avengers must assemble once more in order to undo Thanos’ actions and restore order to the universe once and for all, no matter what consequences may be in store.
Avengers: Endgame is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo. The movie stars Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett, Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Olsen, Chadwick Boseman, Danai Gurira, Sebastian Stan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Benedict Wong, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Holland and Anthony Mackie.
The film is in cinemas worldwide now!
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