Marvel's Original Vision For The Avengers: Endgame Portal Scene Was Quite Different

Name your top scenes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and there are a few flawless moments that will probably make the list. Captain America and Iron Man's fight in Siberia in "Captain America: Civil War" is a top option. So is Thor's arrival on the battlefields of Wakanda in "Infinity War." If there's one moment in all of the on-screen Marvel magic that always gets fans worked up into a collective ball of nostalgic emotion, though, it has to be the famous "Portals" scene at the end of "Avengers: Endgame."

Steve Rogers is standing amidst the ruins of the Avengers compound: beaten down, desperate, and at the end of the line. Yes, he can do this all day, but night seems to be approaching. Then, seemingly out of thin air, he hears the voice of Sam Wilson. "On your left," the future Cap says — a callback to the first time they met in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." The music builds, Black Panther emerges from a portal, and Falcon screams by in mid-flight, starting a sequence like no other as Dr. Strange opens an endless number of portals and ushers an entire army of Avenger allies onto the scene. Cap says "Avengers, assemble," the crowd goes wild, and the final battle against Thanos is on.

But it wasn't always that way. The screenwriters and directors who developed the iconic moment have revealed that the portals scene was actually quite different when it was first filmed and edited (something editor Jeff Ford hinted to /Film in a previous interview). It turns out that it was only after months of debates and reshoots that the spine-chilling final version came into form.

"Avengers: Endgame" took an incredible collection of minds, talents, schedules, and resources to pull off. While everyone contributed, there were two individuals who were at the center of the project from day one: co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo. The entire two-part affair of "Infinity War" and "Endgame" was their shared vision and one that they had to fight for at times — including its biggest moments. Joe Russo explained in the latest issue of Empire magazine, "There was probably some debate regarding the most famous moment, I think, of all the Marvel films, which is the portals opening at the end of Avengers: Endgame."

The director went on to explain the original shot wasn't supposed to show the heroes pouring out of a menagerie of portals all over one side of the battlefield. It was supposed to focus on Rogers. The camera would rotate around Cap, revealing everyone in the background, collected behind him. They filmed that version first and got it into editing, where a knock-down, drag-out fight started over whether it was the right way to go about such a huge scene. "I remember fighting that one for months in the edit room," Russo continued. "I'm not going to say who was on what side, but that was a grinder."

In the end, Russo explains that he and his brother finally decided they were going to film the second version (which ended up in the movie) during reshoots. Even at that point, though, not everyone was in agreement. Writer Stephen McFeely still thought the original version worked well. But in the end, it was the decision to follow the emotional pull of the scene that won out, and Russo was unapologetic about the pivot, saying:

"One of the lessons I've learned over the course of working with these guys and working with Marvel is emotional-logic trumps logic-logic. It's not a cop-out. It's what the movie wants. It's what your audience wants."

Regardless of individual opinions on which version would have been "right" for the movie, no one can argue with the results. The incredible effort that must have gone into reshooting such a gargantuan scene didn't just make the climactic moment of the Infinity Saga incredible. It turned it into one of the greatest moments in MCU history. 'Nuff said.