Kevin Feige talks Captain America nearly being decapitated in 'Avengers: Endgame'

Gregory Wakeman
·Contributor
Updated
HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 13: President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige (L) and actor Chris Evans attend the world premiere of Marvel's "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" at the Dolby Theatre on April 13, 2015 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 13: President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige (L) and actor Chris Evans attend the world premiere of Marvel's "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" at the Dolby Theatre on April 13, 2015 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)

Avengers: Endgame was a monster success for Marvel in every possible way.

Not only was it a critical darling but, as you might have heard, it has since gone on to eclipse Avatar and become the highest grossing film of all time.

But the journey to this triumph was long and complicated, with Marvel head Kevin Feige admitting that, alongside writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directors Joe and Anthony Russo, they had to change many elements of the blockbuster along the way.

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More and more details about what Avengers: Endgame might have consisted of have been released in the months since its release. Audiences were particularly intrigued when it was revealed that a scene depicting Thanos throwing the decapitated head of Captain America to a future version of the superhero had been considered.

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 20: Kevin Feige speak at the Marvel Studios Panel during 2019 Comic-Con International at San Diego Convention Center on July 20, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 20: Kevin Feige speak at the Marvel Studios Panel during 2019 Comic-Con International at San Diego Convention Center on July 20, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)

Feige has now opened up about that scene, revealing it was inspired by an image from the comics.

“I think there are behind the scenes pictures of [us] having the giant omnibus of the Infinity Gauntlet comic collection and saying, ‘We need to do justice to this. One of those images was Thanos sitting on a throne of skulls, ruling over everything and we wanted to get that in there.”

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“One of the ideas was, when they finish the time heist, they returned to a world [in 2023] that Thanos had already conquered, that involved all of that, the throne made of bones and skulls and had him tossing, like a bowling ball, Captain America's severed skull head, still in the cowl, to Captain America. And it was pretty cool, but the logic to get there defeated us."

How close did they come to including the scene in Avengers: Endgame, though?

"I think it ended up in a set of pages at one point in the script,” Feige admitted to Empire. “There might be a piece of concept art somewhere with it."