Avengers: Endgame Writers Reveal Cut Scarlet Witch and Rocket Raccoon Road Trip

With over three hours of runtime, it’s hard to imagine that anything was missing from the epic Marvel Studios movie Avengers: Endgame. But when it came to breaking down this film and the previous entry of Avengers: Infinity War, there was a lot left for the cutting room floor including Scarlet Witch‘s survival of the snap, according to writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

The two writers from the Marvel Cinematic Universe spoke with ScreenRant at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 and revealed they had a big subplot in Avengers: Endgame that had Wanda on a road trip with Rocket Raccoon, and why it ultimately had to be cut from the movie. When asked about outrageous plot lines that had to be cut, they revealed this interesting idea.

“There weren’t terribly outrageous ones, there were a lot more boring ones,” said Markus. “You can go to the Triskellion; it’s a building. There was an iteration where Wanda was alive, she hadn’t been blipped. Wanda and Rocket drove a car from the Triskellion to Doctor Strange’s house, then used the doorway to go to Kamar Taj and get [the Stone]. It was like ‘really? We’re putting in a cross, inter-state car journey in this fast-paced action movie?’ And then wiser heads prevailed.”

It seems like many fans would have enjoyed seeing Wanda survive, much less hang out with Rocket for a good chunk of the movie, but perhaps it all worked out for the best. It likely facilitates the plan for WandaVision, the new Disney+ series coming in 2021.

Markus and McFeely, as well as directors Joe and Anthony Russo, have spoken at length about some of their favorite scenes that were cut from Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame for various reasons, including the debut of one of the most powerful cosmic beings in the Marvel Universe, the Living Tribunal.

“[In Infinity War] as Thanos and Doctor Strange came to blows, Doctor Strange blew Thanos’ mind and sent him through the mindscape,” Markus said at Comic-Con.

“So the idea was that [Thanos is] sort of zipping through the universe being presented with all of his many, many crimes,” added McFeely. “So bodies are being thrown at him, he lands and things turn into bodies, hands are grasping at him, and it’s just really kind of grim.”

“And at the end he gets dumped in front of the Living Tribunal who judges him guilty. It was great, it was really… when you introduce the idea of the Living Tribunal, it does open up a whole new era. I don’t know if my grandmother would understand that.”

Ultimately, it seems like the filmmakers delivered the best possible version of the story that they could, leaving a lot more interesting stories to follow in Phase 4.

Avengers: Endgame will be available on Digital HD on July 30th, followed by the Blu-ray and DVD release on August 13th.