After Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) snap in Avengers: Infinity War erased half of all life in the universe, Avengers: Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo irrevocably changed the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a dramatic five-year time jump that was not, and will not, be reversed.

“We’re owning it moving forward,” Joe Russo told Slate. “And that’s a really crazy narrative decision to own, and it’s gonna make things really interesting, because the universe that these stories take place in is a really odd one.”

Added Anthony, “Primarily what drove the choice was we wanted it to be far enough where our lead characters had reached a point of acceptance. They had to just accept it as their reality.”

That new reality meant a semi-retired Captain America (Chris Evans), a depressed and out-of-shape Thor (Chris Hemsworth) shirking his duties as king of New Asgard, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) acting as manager to the world’s last-surviving superheroes, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) lashing out as the criminal-hunting Ronin, a merged Bruce Banner and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) enjoying an easygoing life as a celebrity, and a retired Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) settled into domestic life with a wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) and a 5-year-old daughter (Lexi Rabe).

“It’s really important to own it,” co-writer Stephen McFeely told THR of playing out consequences and preserving the new status quo brought on by that five-year jump.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige “gets excited, especially when a big swing is proposed,” added co-writer Christopher Markus, who said Feige encouraged the destruction of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the dissolution of Earth’s mightiest heroes in Captain America: Civil War.

“’Take down S.H.I.E.L.D. Civil War.’ He sees the value in breaking the toys,” Markus said.

“He was always pressing for a good sized time jump and to make it permanent. ‘Do it. We’ll deal with it and it will just make it more interesting. Why would you undo it and go back to zero?’ If we went back five years and undid it, that’s five-and-a-half hours of movie that sort of has no point. You loop back around to the beginning and it never happened.”

Marvel’s next production, July’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, will explore the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame and closely examine the minutiae of a world that has seen half its formerly vanished population resurrected overnight.

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