SALT LAKE CITY — “Avengers: Endgame” writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely want you to know something about “Avengers: Infinity War” — the film doesn’t end on a cliffhanger.
McFeely said in a new interview with Backstory magazine (via ComicBook.com) that Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige never wanted to see the final “Avengers” films split into a part one and a part two. Rather, he wanted to see each of the films have their own complete stories.
McFeely said this is why — technically — “Infinity War” doesn’t end with a cliffhanger.
“No, the idea was to reinforce that this was a kind of reverse hero’s journey and we wanted to tag that it’s not a cliffhanger,” he said. “Everything ended, and in fact it ended really well for the guy who was driving the story [Thanos].”
Markus agreed. He said that Thanos is the hero of his story. And he wins. “The hero won, and he got to retire to his shack — just like every cop who’s one week away from retirement [in a movie] and usually gets killed,” he said. “Thanos made it all the way. He got his little fishing post.”
Of course, one could argue that the “Infinity War” ending hinted at the Avengers teaming up to reverse the Snap. And the post-credits scene where Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) pages Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) is another hint at the film ending with a cliffhanger, too.
But it’s clear that the writers wanted the two films to have their own distinct feels. And they do. While “Infinity War” includes fight after fight, battle after battle, “Endgame” has the feel of a caper film that includes the element of time travel.
The idea of the film being about Thanos — and Thanos being the hero — has been the focus of the writers for a while. In fact, back in 2018, Markus and McFeely praised the idea of Thanos being the hero.
“This is the hero’s journey for Thanos,” McFeely told BuzzFeed News. “By the end of the hero’s journey, our main character, our protagonist — at least, in this case — gets what he wants.”
The writers really wanted to hammer this home, too. According to Comic Book Resource, Thanos was originally supposed to narrate “Infinity War,” which would have made it more of a Thanos movie than an “Avengers” movie.
“The Mad Titan was initially set to narrate Infinity War, which means he does have a sympathetic antihero arc to him, and this could come full circle with his redemption. These films are a Thanos two-parter, and ultimately they can culminate in the behemoth finally accepting he was never meant to be a force of nature or to play god,” according to CBR.