[Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame]
It’s hard to believe that there’s someone out there who hasn’t already seen Avengers: Endgame, which earned a staggering $1.2 billion at the worldwide box office over the weekend. But it’s even harder to imagine someone who didn’t have (as the kids say) all the feels when Black Widow sacrificed herself so Hawkeye that could be reunited with his family, and Iron Man was killed on the battlefield. Endgame co-screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely told the New York Times that the plan all along was for Tony Stark to die (“Everyone knew this was going to be the end of Tony Stark”), but there was a conversation surrounding Natasha Romanova’s death.
“The toughest thing for us was we were always worried that people weren’t going to have time to be sad enough. The stakes are still out there and they haven’t solved the problem. But we lost a big character — a female character — how do we honor it? We have this male lens and it’s a lot of guys being sad that a woman died,” McFeely said, while Markus added, “Tony gets a funeral. Natasha doesn’t. That’s partly because Tony’s this massive public figure and she’s been a cipher the whole time. It wasn’t necessarily honest to the character to give her a funeral.” In retrospect, her death was obvious, considering Scarlett Johansson spoiled it weeks before Endgame came out.
Earlier this month, the cast of Avengers: Endgame, including Johansson, Robert Downey, Jr., and Chris Hemsworth appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “I feel like this is the last gathering of the Avengers on this show,” Kimmel noted, leading RDJ to reply, “Well, the future is very uncertain.” Kimmel continued talking, but Johansson leaned over to Downey, Jr., grabbed his arm, and said, “Don’t lie to him, we’re never coming back.” The moment begins at 1:25.
Well, at least it wasn’t Mark Ruffalo.
(Via the New York Times)