The Juiciest Reveals From Avengers: Endgame Commentary Track

Now that Avengers: Endgame is available for digital download and Blu-ray, all the goodies that Marvel packed into their record-breaking epic have been revealed. We’ve recently shared the comic book callbacks, the bloopers, “Bro” Thor and Robert Downey Jr.’s screentest to nab the role of Tony Stark. The extras on the Blu-ray include six deleted scenes, seven featurettes, and more. For Marvel-heads looking for the juiciest stuff, however, the best place to go on the Blu-ray is the commentary track.

Here, directors Joe and Anthony Russo and screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus reveal a ton of fun trivia and interesting facts. These four have been working together since Captain America: The Winter Soldier, building on that with Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. They know their stuff, and they know each other, and therefore their commentary is both informative and joyous.

The foursome explains how much of Endgame relied on the audience’s breadth of knowledge going into the film. Key scenes worked because viewers brought the necessary backstory to the sequences themselves. This was evident in the scene in which a time-traveling Captain America is able to get out of the elevator packed with a dozen Hydra agents without throwing a punch. This, of course, worked so well because viewers knew that in The Winter Soldier, Cap had to fight all those guys in the elevator in one of the film’s most memorable scenes.

So here are some of the juiciest reveals from Avengers: Endgame‘s Blu-ray commentary track, but of course, this is not a comprehensive list. For that, you’ll have to listen to the entire track yourself:

• Chris Hemsworth’s turn as “Bro” Thor included that hysterical, drunken retelling of what happened in Thor: The Dark World in Endgame. The cast clapped after his take.
• When Clint (Jeremy Renner) tests the Avengers time-travel machine, they made sure to put him on a clock so that he’d come back instead of staying with his family. They’d created a scene in which Clint’s so furious for being ripped from his family again that he fights Hulk upon his return.
• When Smart Hulk pretends to be 2012 Hulk back in New York, dispassionately smashing things, it actually was never intended to be in the film. The animators had created the scene as a joke, but the Russos loved it so much they asked Mark Ruffalo to recreate the moment in motion-capture.
• Remember the rat who saved the universe by bringing back Ant-Man? You might see her (or him) again…
• The now-iconic Captain America vs Captain America fight was actually a big reason why Cap decides to stay back in time and lead a different life. Seeing his younger, more “square” self through his post-Thanos-snap eyes made him realize he needed to actually “get a life.”
• The heartbreaking scene between Hawkeye and Black Widow on Vormir initially was going to have a big battle with Thanos sending his army there to “trick” them into feeling a sense of urgency. Instead, they pared the scene down to its final, gutwrenching incarnation.
• In arguably the most shocking reveal, there was a version of the film in which 2014 Thanos arrived in 2023 with Captain America’s severed head (!!).
• Tony used nanotechnology to get the Infinity Stones off of Thanos’ gauntlet. And how was Tony able to survive the snap for as long as he did? His Iron Man suit, of course.
• Bucky knew that Cap was going to stay back in time. This is why he says he’s going to miss him when Cap leaves, even though technically he should only be gone for a few seconds.

Avengers: Endgame is out on digital and Blu-ray now.

Featured image: Tony Stark and Steve Rogers travel back in time and face themselves. Marvel Studios’ AVENGERS: ENDGAME. L to R: Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). Photo: Film Frame. ©Marvel Studios 2019