Avengers: Endgame was undoubtedly one of the biggest productions in the history of cinema, but it would seem that the VFX team dropped the ball on more than one occasion when working on the movie.
The final battle in Endgame was quite practically the culmination of 10 years’ worth of storytelling and 23 films all blended into an epic sequence that saw the heroes of the MCU unite against the Mad Titan to decide the fate of the universe. So, it makes perfect sense that Marvel decided to go big and pull out all the stops to create an unforgettable third act. And while it only takes us 20 minutes to watch the thrilling battle, the VFX team had to spend countless hours making sure that every detail would fall seamlessly into motion, especially since most of what you see on your screen comprises of special effects with a practical fabric.
To Marvel Studios’ detriment, though, fans will keep on coming back to rewatch these scenes and find errors in the CGI. Namely, some people had previously noticed an error during the “I am inevitable!” moment when Thanos’ fingers clip through his palm as he attempts to snap them while wearing Tony’s Infinity Gauntlet.
Now, Matt Aitken, who crafted these scenes with his team at Weta Digital, has finally broken to silence to address the flub in a recent video with the Corridor Crew. Speaking about how it happened, he explained that they didn’t notice it before the movie premiered, noting:
“Yeah. I wish we caught it at the time. It just goes to show there’s always a little bit more that you could do. But yeah, we were doing a lot of work on the armor. You don’t want to constrain what Josh [Brolin] was doing on set, you want him to be able to perform and you just have to make the armor work to that.”
Of course, as the initiated would tell you, this is a common mistake when adding computer effects to a frame. In fact, most people would probably miss it without previous context.
And besides, Avengers: Endgame went on to become the highest-grossing film in history, so all’s well that ends well, right?