During lockdown, a selection of acclaimed directors are taking to Twitter to partake in a quarantine style fan-viewing of their films with everyone being able to follow along and contribute to the conversation. One (or should I say two) of these directors is the Marvel directing duo of Joe and Anthony Russo, after already doing an "ask-me-anything" on Reddit.
At the end of April, the Russo's joined fans in a viewing of Avengers: Endgame using the hashtag #AvengersAssemble. Let's take a look at a few behind the scenes information or story points that you may not have known about your viewing the first time around.
Brie Larson As Captain Marvel
This scene with Captain Marvel, Rocket, and the other Avengers on their way to Titan to confront Thanos was actually Brie Larson's first day as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel. In case you didn't know, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame were filmed back to back over the course of roughly 5 months all over the globe in 2017.
Filming for Captain Marvel did not begin until 2018, so Larson's first day shooting as Captain Marvel came before she had begun shooting for her film where she was introduced to fans.
Tony's Lake House
When fans first meet Tony Stark in Endgame, 5 years after they confront Thanos, he is living in a lake house with Pepper and Morgan. During the live-stream, Joe and Anthony revealed that this lake house was only a few hundred yards away from where they filmed the climactic battle in Wakanda during the third act of Avengers: Infinity War.
This property was available on Airbnb and is located in Fairburn, Georgia. It includes 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and can be yours for around $700 a night.
Banner & The Ancient One
The time travel logic used in Endgame certainly scratched some heads as it essentially called out numerous time travel movies that have come before it for inaccurate representations of time travel. In the compound, Hulk explains to Scott Lang that films such as Back To The Future, Terminator, and Hot Tub Time Machine all do time travel wrong.
The Ancient One, played by Tilda Swinton, makes her return during the battle of New York from Avengers: Assembled as Banner tries to retrieve the time stone. The Russo's revealed that this scene was one of the hardest scenes to film across Infinity War and Endgame. After The Ancient One is skeptical of Banner's plan to take the time stone, he explains that he will restore the timeline by returning the stone at the exact moment it was taken. Writing and filming this scene in a way that makes it clear to audiences certainly provides quite a challenge.
"Hail Hydra"
This will give fans an indication of how long it takes to film even a short scene in a movie. Another callback scene in Endgame is when Cap is in the elevator with the Strike team from SHIELD, who were actually HYDRA.
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the elevator fight scene took 4 days to shoot, but even without any fight sequences, the elevator scene in Endgame took 3 hours to film.
Returning To Asgard
Thor and Rocket are tasked with retrieving the reality stone from inside Jane Foster who was on Asgard. The Russo's revealed that Durham Cathedral in the UK was the setting for Asgard in Endgame. Not only that, but the crew also had to wait for the choir to finish their rehearsal before they could film.
It makes sense that having Thor and a raccoon running around might be a bit distracting for the choir during their practice.
Revisiting Morag
One of the other callbacks to a previous Marvel movie is seeing Chris Pratt's Peter Quill on Morag for the first time dancing along to "Come And Get Your Love" by Redbone which is part of the opening sequence of Guardians of The Galaxy.
The scene with Jane Foster on Asgard was recycled footage from Thor: The Dark World, but this scene with Peter Quill was completely new footage shot for this movie. Although the Tweet did not come directly from the Russo Brothers, they did retweet it on their account, which serves as pretty solid confirmation. It does have a few small nods to the original scene from Guardians of The Galaxy such as Quill using the small creature as a microphone to sing along to his cassette with.
Cap Was Originally The Soul Stone
Avengers: Infinity War marked the first appearance of the Soul Stone on Vormir where Gamora was sacrificed. During the live-stream, one fan asked the Russo's whether or not there were any other plans for the Soul Stone to appear anywhere else other than Vormir.
The Russo's revealed that there was another idea early on that Captain America/Steve Rogers himself was the Soul Stone. Due to his strong will, courage, and good heart this would have hit fans incredibly hard, perhaps even harder than the ending we got for his character (which was also exceptional for the record).
The Thor-Roasting Cut
When Thor tries to make up for his mistake of not-killing Thanos, he urges that he be the one to snap his fingers to bring everyone back. Rhodey sarcastically (but also seriously) suggests that Thor is in no state to carry out the snap because there is too much cheese-wiz coursing through his veins.
Well if you enjoyed that joke, you'll be happy to know that there are 30 minutes of footage of Don Cheadle roasting Thor about what is coursing through his veins. #releasethecheadlecut anybody?
Worthy Cap
One of the biggest "nerd-out" moments of Endgame was definitely Cap wielding Mjolnir for the first time. One fan asked how early on in the process Chris Evans knew he was going to hold the hammer. The Russo's stated that Evans knew fairly early on in the development of the movie.
It's highly likely that The Russo's probably knew this information further in advance, and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige knew even further in advance, perhaps even years before the final two movies were filmed.
Portals
Many Marvel directors have different approaches to scoring their movies. James Gunn plays his scores on set as the actors act out scenes so they can get a feel for timing and what the fans will be seeing and hearing in the theatre.
Alan Silvestri returned to masterfully score Avengers: Endgame and apparently, even though it wasn't the last piece of music to be heard in the movie, the portal's theme which included the main Avengers theme was the last piece of music to be edited into the movie.