Marvel Cinematic Universe fans all over the world were left in floods of tears when the credits rolled on Avengers: Endgame, with Black Widow and Tony Stark having made the ultimate sacrifice to restore balance, while Steve Rogers had lived out his life and returned to the current timeline as a contended elderly gentleman who’d lived the life he never got the chance to have.
In one fell swoop, half of the six members of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes first assembled for 2012’s opening installment were gone, but things could have been much worse. So much worse, in fact. Speaking to Josh Horowitz, Joe Russo revealed that none other than Kevin Feige pitched the idea of adding Hulk, Hawkeye, and Thor to the body count, but the co-director wisely stated that there’s no way audiences would be able to handle it.
“Kevin did actually pitch at one point taking all the OGs off the board. We thought it was way too aggressive and that the audience wouldn’t be able to process it, and that in fact picking one or two characters to make sacrifices throughout the movie might give you moments throughout the film where the action could stop and you could have emotional catharsis and then continue with the narrative and then have more emotional catharsis.”
Anthony Russo did clarify that getting rid of the OGs was more a suggestion than a hammered-out concept, stating that it “wasn’t like there was ever a script or anything that had that in it”. Even still, it’s shocking to think that the boss man himself considered shuffling the entirety of the Avengers lineup to their respective mortal coil, and what it would have meant for Thor: Love and Thunder, Hawkeye (and by extension Echo), and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.