Avengers: Endgame Directors Reveal Why They Chose the Opening Song Over the Marvel Fanfare

Unlike almost every other movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the record-breaking Avengers: [...]

By Charlie Ridgely

Unlike almost every other movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the record-breaking Avengers: Endgame doesn't play the classic fanfare when the Marvel opening animation lights up the screen at the beginning of the movie. Instead, Traffic's song "Dear Mr. Fantasy" plays through the speakers, setting up the scene of Tony and Nebula stranded in space. It's a jarring change in music that fans didn't expect, but according to directors Joe and Anthony Russo, that's the point.

Avengers: Endgame arrived on Digital HD on Tuesday and the new home release comes complete with a feature commentary track from the Russo Brothers and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. At the very beginning of that commentary, just after Hawkeye watches his family fade into dust, the filmmakers address the absence of the fanfare.

"Now this song was resonant for a lot of reasons," Joe Russo said. "We felt like it was correct tonally, but we thought that the lyrics were appropriate for Marvel, and what it's done and the expectations from giant pop culture films."

"This being the climactic movie of the 22-movie run, it was nice to comment on our experience of these movies," added Anthony.

McFeely asked about the relationship these songs have to the score, especially compared to Infinity War where there were very few songs outside of Alan Silvestri's composition. The Russo Brothers confirmed that the musical changes were one of many effort

"We did like the fact that it made things feel different, especially at that point in the movie," Anthony said. It was an unusual choice. And the way that stood in contrast to Infinity War, it was important again. 'Cause we're trying to let people know right away that this is a different story."

"Told from a different point of view in a different tone. And so that does distinguish it right off the bat," said Joe.

What did you think of the opening song? Will more Marvel Studios films choose to use alternate music to kick things off? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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