'Avengers: Infinity War' Originally Had A Much Longer Scene Between Tony And Pepper

Tony Stark and Pepper Potts' scene in Avengers: Infinity War was originally going to be much longer.

While Avengers: Infinity War did not have much room for deleted scenes or extra days of production as it was already a relentless and massive undertaking, the original version of Tony Stark's entry was quite a bit different. Avengers: Infinity War's writer Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely opened up about the alternate version of the scene while talking to Collider.

"We shot an entirely different, I'm being serious, [scene]," Markus said. "We shot an unbelievably long version of Tony and Pepper in the park that featured cameos and it was sort of Robert [Downey Jr.] and his friends' day at the park. Went a little crazy and then when we turned the camera off..."

The cameos were not necessarily personal friends of the actor joining the cast but, instead, appearances by characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Each one was "MCU characters from their world plus Joe Russo," Markus says. While the Netflix characters were thoroughly considered for the ensemble film, the writers say there was never a version of the movie which included them. This likely leaves appearances from characters such as Happy Hogan on the table.

"It got kind of out of control," Markus said of Tony and Pepper's alternate scene. "It was off-plot entirely so we went back and we wrote one that was in a different place, that was much more tonally on plot, took place in a different place. It was Tony and Pepper. We shot it and it was kind of lovely but it got you off on the wrong foot with Tony. It was like he knew the movie was about to happen. So, we went back down to an edited down version of that park scene. I have vivid memories of shooting and writing that scene you'll never see, or maybe, you never know..."

As for the other deleted scenes, Avengers: Infinity War directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo detailed one involving the Guardians of the Galaxy which was also removed for not serving a purpose to the film's overall narrative.

"Because we have such a great relationship and we go through such a thorough process with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, we generally are pretty tight in terms of what the movie is," Anthony Russo told ComicBook.com. "We do have a few scenes. One of the most substantial ones is a scene we really loved. It's a scene between the Guardians, between Pratt, Drax, and Mantis."

While the Guardians did have some significant and hilarious scenes after Thor crashed on their windshield in Avengers: Infinity War, this scene in particular was strictly to serve the purpose of comedy.

"And it's at that moment in the movie where they have lost Gamora to Thanos in the Knowhere and they don't know what to do about it," Anthony Russo went on. "They don't know where to go. They have no idea what to do. And it serves as this very absurd scene about the Guardians not knowing what to do, that's very, very funny. And even though we loved the scene, the movie just wasn't asking for it at that moment."

In the end, the Russo Brothers took a look at the story they were telling with dozens of heroes sprawling across the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and ruled that this one would not supplement the movie as they might have hoped.

"It's such a complex movie, there's so much going on, we just needed to keep things pushing," Anthony Russo said. "Driving harder at that moment in the show. And for that and other reasons we just ended up taking it and the movie played better without it."

Avengers: Infinity War is now playing in theaters. Ant-Man and The Wasp is set for release on July 6, 2018. Captain Marvel will follow it on March 6, 2019, with the untitled Avengers 4 set to tie everything about the Marvel Cinematic Universe into a bow on May 3, 2019.

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