By now, six months after Avengers: Endgame was released into theaters (eventually becoming the highest-grossing movie ever), it would seem impossible for any screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to drop any new information about the film. They, along with directors Anthony and Joe Russo, have done a lot of interviews, including one with us about how they choose who lives and dies. And yet! While speaking to CinemaBlend, Markus revealed that James Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine, was nearly vice president in Endgame. Not vice president of, like, Pets.com (the dog puppet was VP — no wonder it tanked), but the United States of America.
“We took it out because it didn’t have any story weight, but I believe that during one draft, in the five year jump, Rhodey became vice president. Vice President Rhodey,” he said, as if Washington, D.C. isn’t already filled with war machines [ducks 1,000 tomatoes]. I wonder who president was? Probably the Hulk. “Hulk smash crime.”
Markus also discussed how Scarlet Witch originally survived Thanos’ snap:
“We had a moment where [Scarlet Witch] looked at [Vision’s] body in a drawer, and it was mainly just maudlin. It was also, frankly, from a draft where she hadn’t been blipped. Because we had a draft where she survived and was a character in Endgame. The problem was she’d gotten so much mileage and story in the first movie that she didn’t really have anything that equaled that in the second. So it was a step down.” (Via)
Scarlet Witch may have gotten “blipped,” but she returned in Endgame, and she’s getting her own Disney+ show, WandaVision, which sounds bonkers. She’s doing fine.
(Via CinemaBlend)
