Avengers: Endgame was packed with more fan-pleasing moments than any other MCU movie to date, but few inspired a bigger reaction than the all-female team-up scene at the film’s climax.
Just the image of Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Valkyrie, Pepper Potts, Mantis, Wasp, Shuri, Okoye, Gamora and Nebula together in one place would’ve likely been enough to get audiences cheering, but according to co-writer Christopher Markus, it was important for the Marvel Studios team that the moment was well integrated into the story.
Speaking to Backstory Magazine, the scribe shared his thoughts on the Avengers: Infinity War sequel’s nod to the A-Force comics:
“It was present from fairly early on, and the debate was that’s an incredibly generic name — Marvel, try harder. But it was a matter of justifying it on a story level so it didn’t seem just like, ‘Hey, look at all the women we have.’ It took a while to move it around, find the right spot for it in the battle, but it was something we always wanted because it’s really satisfying on a visceral level.”
In an interview with The New York Times earlier this year, Markus and his co-writer Stephen McFeely recalled there being some debate over whether or not the scene would come across as pandering. Ultimately, they decided to keep the moment in the movie as a celebration of all the “badass women” that the MCU has amassed over the years.
Of course, out of all the women involved in the final battle of Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel is still the only one to have her own standalone project, but it’s clear that Marvel Studios is taking measures to correct the gender imbalance in their output.
For one thing, the MCU’s Phase 4 is set to kick off with the long-awaited Black Widow solo movie, which arrives in theaters on May 1st, 2020. A year later, Scarlet Witch will be taking the lead with the Disney Plus show WandaVision, before Natalie Portman takes over from Chris Hemsworth when Thor: Love and Thunder comes out on November 5th, 2021.