Captain America: The First Avenger originally ended with Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) fighting a giant Hydra robot. Marvel Studios' first Captain America solo movie hit theaters in 2011 and introduced the Star-Spangled hero to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a World War II set origin. The movie, directed by Joe Johnston, was written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the duo who would go on to write both Captain America sequels, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.
The main conflict in Captain America: The First Avenger was between Steve Rogers and Red Skull, two very different results of Dr. Erskine's super-soldier serum. The movie built to a final confrontation between them on Red Skull's Hydra plane that was armed with bombs for different American cities. Captain America and Red Skull's brief fight ended when Hydra's leader disappeared after touching the Tesseract. This left Steve to crash Red Skull's plane after the autopilot function was damaged, giving Captain America: The First Avenger an emotional finale before Steve woke up in present-day New York.
Markus and McFeely spent years developing Captain America: The First Avenger and they have now revealed the film's very different original ending. The pair spoke to Yahoo recently to celebrate the movie's ten-year anniversary. They talked about the biggest changes made from the start of their work in 2008 to the film's release three years later. According to them, it was the original inclusion of a "giant Hydra robot." Markus said that a "large chunk" of the end included Captain America fighting the robot, so why was it changed? He said, "I think eventually it was a budget and time thing. Where it was like, ‘We really can’t be spending that much time.’"
The plans for a giant Hydra robot in Captain America: The First Avenger's ending show how different the movie could've been at one point. It is unknown exactly how the giant robot would've factored into the story, but the writers did tease that it was under the control of Red Skull in the finale. The robot was even slated to be called Panzermax, which is the name of a robot Baron Strucker used at one time in the comics.
Although some viewers might have liked to see Captain America include some more spectacle with a giant robot fight, it is safe to say that the decision to scrap this ending was for the best. Captain America: The First Avenger's ending now hinges on Steve Rogers' relationship with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Their heartbreaking goodbye and Steve's "I had a date" line when he finally wakes up cemented their place in the hearts of fans. And since Markus and McFeely brought Steve's story full circle with him growing old with Peggy in Avengers: Endgame, that bookend might not have hit as hard if Captain America: The First Avenger had this original ending with a giant Hydra robot.
Source: Yahoo
