‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Ending Is Real; ‘Avengers 4’ Will Have Surprises

A lot of us are still reeling after the ending of Avengers: Infinity War. With a massive superhero ensemble like this, we knew there would be some casualties, but I don’t think any of us were prepared for what Marvel gave us. Obviously, the upcoming sequel will have some of the heroes who didn’t appear in Infinity War make an appearance in Avengers 4, even a certain hero who could only be reached via retro technology. So as many of us are still coping, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are talking about how Avengers 4 will not reverse what was done in Infinity War. That ending was real and permanent, they say. But we can expect to see some surprises in Avengers 4. Check out what the two had to say here below.

Warning: major spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen the film, I suggest you do not continue reading on any further.

So as far as we know, Heimdall (Idris Elba), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), T’Challa aka Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Bucky aka White Wolf (Sebastian Stan), Sam aka Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Vision (Paul Bettany), Groot (voice of Vin Diesel), Agent Hill (Cobie Smulders), and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) are all dust. No literally, they are just dust in the wind. So if you need to take another moment, now is the time.

That’s a lot of heroes, and no too many who were spared from Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) mercy. And that is something Markus compares to as “a gut punch to people in a way that I didn’t fully [realize].”

In an interview with Buzzfeed, the two screenwriters spoke about how they wanted to avoid Infinity War feeling like a TV episode cliffhanger. Here’s what Markus had to say:

â€œEven if the end is a tragedy, we wanted it to be definitive. To say, â€˜Oh my gosh, what’s he going to do?! He’s only got one [Infinity Stone] left! I wonder if he’ll get the other one!â€™ That just seemed like â€˜Tune in next weekâ€™ jerking around.â€

Basically, they always knew that Thanos was going to win.

As for the deaths, well, there is a reason why in Infinity War those characters died. Because this is a two-movie film, McFeely felt that the characters who didn’t get that much of a role in this film would have a much larger on in Avengers 4.

â€œSome characters were better served in movie 2 after this event. We were making some choices based on some characters we knew were going to leave us at the end of the first movie, so they got highlighted in the first movie. And some who were going to be in the second movie more maybe got less attention or less screentime [in Infinity War] â€” I’m thinking of Cap and Natasha, specifically. It’s about the story we wanted to tell in movie 2, mostly.â€

However, they had no idea how much of an impact T’Challa’s death would have had on anyone, especially since they wrote Infinity War long before there was no Black Panther movie. Here’s what McFeely had to say.

â€œFirst of all, we would do it all over again. But remember, when weâ€™re writing [Infinity War], and even shooting, there is no Black Panther movie. We donâ€™t know itâ€™s going to be so good, so effective, so resonant. And we had to treat all these characters the same. People who leave us [in Infinity War] are the leads of their own franchises. And Black Pantherâ€™s no different.â€

But just don’t expect Avengers 4 to fix Thanos’ mistake.(?) According to Markus, Avengers 4 will be very different.

â€œ[Avengers 4] doesnâ€™t do what you think it does. It is a different movie than you think it is.â€ Then he paused. â€œAlsoâ€¦ [the deaths are] real. I just want to tell you itâ€™s real, and the sooner you accept that, the sooner you will be able to move on to the next stage of grief.â€

McFeely chimed in with the following:

â€œPut it this way. I think [Infinity War] is a fairly mature movie for a blockbuster. Itâ€™s got a lot of fun in it, obviously, but boy, it gets very mature. The second one is also mature. Weâ€™re going to own these choices, and hopefully surprise and delight you and get you invested. Itâ€™s by the same studio, the same filmmaking team. They were written at the same time, shot at the same time. Theyâ€™re clearly connected, but they are definitely two different movies, one of which is dependent on what happened previous.â€

To which Markus said,

â€œWe broke your heart. Now we’re going to blow your mind!â€

Be sure to check out the full interview with the writers including how the Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy sequels did not factor into what they were writing in Infinity War.

Avengers: Infinity War is out in theaters now.