Today marks the third anniversary of the domestic release of Avengers: Endgame. The conclusion to more than a decade of MCU storytelling brought in practically every major hero for a time traveling caper, as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes pulled together to reverse Thanos’ snap that ended Infinity War.
Directors Anthony and Joe Russo smashed it out of the park, with even the most skeptical critics left impressed, and it demolished multiple box office records to end up as the highest-grossing title in cinema history (though Avatar would later steal back its crown in 2021).
Fans are paying tribute to the movie on social media, and many are noting that 2019 now feels like a lifetime ago given all that’s happened in the world since.
Others are celebrating their favorite moments from the movie:
And others memorializing Robert Downey Jr’s finale as Tony Stark:
At the time, many argued that Endgame was so successful as a finale that the MCU should stop there and end on a high. For a while they almost got their wish: Spider-Man: No Way Home landed in theaters later that summer, before COVID hit and threw a spanner into Marvel Studios’ release plans.
Three years later and the long-running series is back on its feet, and after hits like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, Black Widow, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, there’s clearly a lot of gas still left in the cinematic universe’s tank.