‘Avengers’ Team Considered Delaying Thanos’ Snap Until ‘Endgame’

Ultimately, 'Avengers: Infinity War' and 'Endgame' co-writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus opted for what they considered the most shocking option.

March 19, 2019

The placement of a pivotal snap was apparently up for debate at one point in the Avengers cinematic universe development process.

As we all presumably know by now, Avengers: Infinity War closes out with a snap of the finger from Thanos signaling a certain cataclysmic event. Early in the process, as co-writer Stephen McFeely recently revealed to Empire, the snap was being considered as a possible Endgame moment instead.

"We had so much story in those early drafts of Infinity War that, if anything, we thought we maybe shouldn't do the Snap until the end of act one of Endgame," he said.

Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige added a bit more context, revealing that the Infinity War ending had been discussed for years, with the shock factor value of closing out on a snap ultimately prevailing. "It was the reason to adapt Infinity Gauntlet," Feige said. "What was the most shocking thing we could do? End the movie with the Snap." Of course, he was right.

Thanos' snap has been discussed at length since the April 2018 release of Infinity War. In an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast that summer, co-director Joe Russo gave his take on the powerful creative decision, as well as the additional emotional punch behind the snap by way of Thanos' daughter Gamora.

"For Thanos at the end of the movie, this is part of his Hero's Journey, we once again put him face to face with the only thing that he cared about, where he has to own up to the emotional cost of what he's done in the movie," Russo said at the time.

Endgame is out April 26. The latest trailer recently became the second most-watched trailer ever in its first 24 hours. All told, the trailer bagged nearly 270 million views on its first day alone.