Avengers: Endgame Writers Reveal Why Killing Captain America Would Have Been Too Easy

Heading into Avengers: Endgame, most fans — myself included — would have assumed Captain America(Chris Evans) was going to be the one laying down his life to make the ultimate sacrifice against Thanos. Now some three months after the film’s release, we know that’s totally not the case. This past weekend at Comic-Con, we decided to ask Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely why they wanted to keep Cap alive and the response was the same — it was too easy to kill him off.

As they both explained, Cap is one to make sacrifices time and time again so that wanted to be sure to go against the grain and keep Cap alive throughout the duration of the film, providing another level of depth to the fan-favorite Avenger.

“It’s too easy. That guy will jump on a grenade every movie,” McFeely explained. “Tony’s going one way and Steve is going another. Over the course of many movies, Tony is going from selfish to selfless and Steve’s not doing exactly the opposite but he’s certainly starting at selfless and learning to get a life and to be self-interested. When he makes the decision at the end to go back, put his shield down, and be the soldier that comes back from war, that’s the biggest journey. Jumping on another grenade is not a move for him.”

Rogers eventually managed to make it out alive — despite quite elderly, thanks to the magic of time travel — while Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) were the two to die at one point or another in the film.

“Somebody has to die to get the Soul Stone. It’s the only way you get it,” Markus reminded us about the now-dead Avenger. “You need two people who love each other to make the equation work. When we figured out where that five year gap had left all the people, it really had left her at this spot where all she was working for was holding the line, staying on the wall, holding the world together and this was what she would do. There was no question about it. I don’t know who told Scarlett [Johansson], it wasn’t me.”

Other upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow opens in theaters on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in spring 2021, Loki in spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If? In summer 2021, Hawkeye in fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021.