>Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans are both done with the MCU and there are no plans for bring them back in the future.

>Smart Hulk would appear during the Battle of Wakanda in INFINITY WAR, but it did not feel right to have Banner have a win when everybody else lost. Several drafts featured Banner’s experiments in the gamma laboratory before it was ultimately decided to just jump right into it, with Ant-Man as the audience surrogate asking “WTF is going on?”

>There is a deleted scene detailing what Hulk has been up to in terms of crimefighting during the five-year jump, but it felt superfluous.

>Hawkeye was left out of INFINITY WAR because “reluctantly leaving his family to fight” would just be a retread of his CIVIL WAR arc and he would have no greater impact in the Battle of Wakanda. His family being dusted was also planned for INFINITY WAR to show the global effect of the snap, but the Russos decided it undermined the urgency of what was going on in Wakanda.

>There is some deleted content about Hawkeye in Japan leading up to his reunion with Black Widow.

>Doctor Strange VS. Thanos in INFINITY WAR was originally much longer and trippier, and included an appearance from the Living Tribunal watching from afar as they fought across dimensions, but everyone felt it was too weird with proper context.

>Earlier drafts detailed Thanos’ flashbacks in 10 minutes worth of flashbacks, some of which were shot before the whole thing was cut for being superfluous. They revealed that Thanos was an aberration due to his appearance and was sent to a space gulag for years due to his extremist ideas, during which his race died out as he predicted. It was in prison that Thanos began building his criminal empire.

>Vision is dead as far as the Russos are concerned, and there were no plans to revive in ENDGAME.

>Thor would originally be on a “mission of vengeance” in ENDGAME, but the writers felt that was just retreading old ground and decided to completely just Thor by making him a fat drunk.

>Thor was originally more serious and tortured in INFINITY WAR/ENDGAME. Only after meeting Taika Waititi and learning what he was doing in THOR: RAGNAROK that they found a way to add humor to the character.

>They wanted to keep present Thanos alive at first, but there was no organic way for the five-year jump to happen if he was kept alive after the Avengers confronted him at the Garden.

>There is quite a bit of Black Widow material that ended up being deleted, including her “depression montage” which sets up the birdhouse and a moment she shares with Hawkeye on the way to Vormir.

>There reportedly is an extended comedic scene of Scott Lang being interrogated by the security guard played by Ken Jeong.

>There reportedly is an alternate version of Thor’s recruitment set at a bar, which is a little more serious and features Valkyrie more prominently and no Korg & Miek.

>MCU time travel follows the “Multiverse Theory”, in which changing the past creates a branched timeline from the changed point onwards, rather than affect the “prime timeline”.

>The Russos believe that Captain America lived his life in a branched timeline and later came back to the prime timeline to pass his shield onto Falcon, while the writers believe he was always part of the prime timeline and was Peggy’s husband all along. So, choose your own ending.

>The writers were reluctant to revisit THE AVENGERS. Earlier drafts had Stark accompanying Thor and Rocket to 2013’s Asgard and using a stealth armor to steal the Tesseract from Odin’s vault, leading to a fight with Heimdall, while Cap, Hulk and Ant-Man would steal Loki’s scepter from the Triskelion in 2013 (hence recreating the elevator scene from THE WINTER SOLDIER) and then drive to the Sanctum Sanctorum to get the Time Stone from the Ancient One.

>Before they came up with the Cap VS. Cap scene, they planned a Thor VS. Thor scene in Asgard. Even after that was scrapped, they considering having a comedic moment of past Thor running into present Thor and wondering what the fuck went wrong.

>Jane Foster’s appearance was deleted footage from with Rocket digitally added into the frame, but Natalie Portman did ADR new dialogue for it. They originally planned a scene where Thor meets her and they discuss their relationship, but it prolongued the scene too much, and they favored Thor’s reunion with Frigga.

>They considered having Thor regain his muscly physique through magic/time-travel/whatever, but felt it reduced Thor’s depression too much of a joke and it was more effective to see him still being a great hero despite the extra weight.

>Some versions had the 2012 Avengers butting heads with either Nick Fury or Maria Hill over Loki’s jurisdiction, in case Robert Redford could not return.

>The Morag segment was very different in earlier drafts: Black Widow, Hawkeye, War Machine and Nebula would go back to Morag together, and the planet would be completely underwater and ravaged by thunderstorms. They would have to evade sea monsters to reach the temple and get the orb.

>The Vormir segment was also different, but Thanos’ soldiers ambushing Black Widow and Hawkeye, and Black Widow running the gauntlet and getting shot several times before she manages to jump off the cliff. Ultimately, they felt it detracted from the emotional core of the scene.

>Some drafts had Hawkeye jump instead of Black Widow. They also considering having the Hulk be with her on Vormir, but ultimately felt Hawkeye and her had the stronger bond.

>Black Widow and present Gamora are 100% dead. Soul Stone sacrifices are irreversible regardless of time travel or Infinity Stones.

>Hulk’s arm is permanently gimped.

>The final battle was originally much longer, with its own three-act structure, and apparently there’s 15 minutes worth of deleted content from it.

>There was a segment called “reunions and team-ups”, which featured characters that shared close bonds like Cap & Bucky, Rocket & Groot, Black Panther & Okoye and Ant-Man & Wasp more reuniting in the battlefield, and characters from different franchises fighting together. Eventually they felt it the segment was getting too long/self-aware and stripped it down.

>They considered having Hank Pym and Janet Pym join the fight in their own Ant-Man and Wasp suits, but that fell by the wayside.

>The writers envisioned a comedic scene where the battle briefly gets paused for whatever reason, and an assorted of roughly 15 random characters from all corners of the MCU end up together in the trench trying to figure out what their next battle move should be, but they felt the scene ultimately broke the pace and wasn’t funny enough.

>The all-female shot almost didn’t happen as the Russos and the writers recognize it was a bit too fanservice-y, but they feel it was a worthy compromise to celebrate all the great female characters of the MCU.

>Howard the Duck’s cameo was a last-minute addition during the final month of post-production.

>They went through dozens of variations of Stark’s last words, none of them satisfactory (“Eat it, Barney”, for example). They actually shot it with Stark saying nothing at first, and “I am Iron Man” was suggested by the editor while assembling the rough cut. They persuaded RDJ to come back and he reshot the scene with it.

>Originally, after snapping his fingers, Stark would end up in the same metaphysical Soul World that Thanos did in INFINITY WAR. While Thanos saw a manifestation of Gamora as a child, Tony would see a manifestation of his daughter as an adult, played by Katherine Langford from 13 REASONS WHY, and she would forgive him for leaving, but test-audiences didn’t connect with the scene and it was cut.

>Doctor Strange always knew the one timeline where they won required Stark to figure out time travel and then die wielding the Infinity Gauntlet, hence why he gave up the Time Stone in Titan to spare Stark from a premature death.

>Doctor Strange couldn’t use the Time Stone to revive Stark because it is not powerful enough to undo the damage of the full might of the Infinity Gauntlet on Stark’s body.

>”I love you 3000” was ad-libbed by RDJ. It is something that he says to his real-life children.

>Stark’s funeral was a nightmare to film since they actually got everyone together to film it. Security was reinforced and the actors were told they would be shooting the Stark/Pepper wedding scene to avoid leaks.

>Harley showing up at the funeral is just a neat callback, not evidence that Marvel was plans for him going forward, though the actor is obviously up for anything.

>There’s a deleted comedic bit of Thor trying to kiss Valkyrie after appointing her queen, and getting turned down.

>They consulted with James Gunn before having Thor leave with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

>They always planned to kill Stark, since he already got to enjoy the retired life he always wanted with Pepper and their daughter during the time skip, and it was thematically fitting to close that chapter of the MCU. They were also adamant he died by his own accord through sacrifice rather than be killed by Thanos.

>They always planned to retire Cap rather than kill him. Cap’s and Stark’s endgames as a reversal of who they started out as: Cap was selfless and self-sacrificial, and learned to put himself first a little. Stark was selfish and self-centered, and learned to be truly selfless.

>RDJ had mixed feelings towards Stark’s death but ultimately came around, while Evans’ felt Cap’s ending was very appropriate.

>They prioritized the imagery and emotional resonance of Old Cap on the bench over over-explaining the mechanics of how he made it back from the branched timeline.

>Bucky knew that Cap was going to stay in the past after returning the Infinity Stones, hence the long hug and the “I’ll miss you”.

>They considered having Bucky take the shield, but felt it wasn’t true to the character who up until that point only wanted to avoid conflict and be left alone. They also felt Falcon was closer to Cap in terms of idealism, determination and duty. He is definitely the new Captain America now.

>Everyone that did not die by the Snap, such as Loki and Heimdall, are permanently dead, although Loki might be alive in the branched timeline where he stole the Tesseract in 2012.

>The upcoming Disney+ shows will be set after ENDGAME.

>There were never plans to bring back Quicksilver or Justin Hammer, or introduce Adam Warlock or Nova.

>Test-audiences really struggled with time travel rules that didn’t adhere to the BACK TO THE FUTURE “the past immediately changes the future” mentality.

>There were plans for a post-credits scene, but they felt ENDGAME should be proper end to the first 10 years of the MCU, with no sequel baiting.

>Adding the sound of Stark forging the hammer over the Marvel Studios logo in the end was Kevin Feige’s idea.