Avengers: Endgame Writers Address How Thor: The Dark World is Affected

Avengers: Endgame will have a lasting impact on the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe's past, present, and future. Looking back on prior films will be a different experience after seeing how each of them played a role in Avengers: Endgame, especially Thor: The Dark World. However, according to the writers, any changes audiences might think have happened to the 2013 movie's story aren't actually really happening.

Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame follow. Major spoilers!

In Thor: The Dark World, Thor used his Mjolnir hammer to defeat the Dark Elves despite losing his mother. Meanwhile, the Power Stone was operating as the Aether and living inside of Jane Foster. In Endgame, Rocket Raccoon extracted the Power Stone while Thor took his hammer to the present day. The goal of Captain America at the end of the film was to return these objects to where they were found (or, at least return each of the Infinity Stones) and restore the timeline to the way they found it.

According to writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the story of Thor: The Dark World won't be affect by the moves made in Avengers: Endgame.

"Does that screw that other Thor?" McFeely teased in an interview with NY Times.

"Is he killed by Dark Elves?" Markus adds.

They relied on their own time travel rules to explain the changes made in the past. "I think we're leaning on, when you just take a baseball mitt, you didn't ruin that kid's life," McFeely explained. "When you took Mjolnir, we accept that that movie happened. Because time is irrefutable."

"You can make any number of what ifs," Markus adds, which is actually something Disney is doing with their new Disney+ streaming service. "The Dark Elves would have arrived, intending to get the Aether. It's what they came for and it was no longer there."

Without actually explaining what would have happened next in this new timeline, McFeely and Markus had a little fun with one of those What Ifs. "So they build a paradise together," McFeely joked.

"They all got married," Markus concluded with a laugh.

The search for answers and explanations will continue as Marvel Studios finally heads into its fourth phase of films which is expected to launch in 2020. In the mean time, ComicBook.com will sit down with Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo for the live Game Over: An Evening With Joe Russo event and broadcast on May 6.

Avengers: Endgame is now playing in theaters.